A Story for Suzie
by Crazyeight
Summary: Suzie is sick and wants to hear a story from her older brother. With a bit of inspiration, Henry has one to tell, though before it ends he might wish he hadn't.
1. Chapter 1

A Story for Suzie

A Digimon Tamers story by Crazyeight

Chapter: 01

"Whoa!"

Up.

"Terriermon…"

"Whee!"

Down.

"Iyaaah!"

Up.

"Ha! Ha!"

"Terriermon…"

Down.

Henry Wong sighed, his head in his hand as he watched his friend, a cream and green-colored furred digital life form with ears that made him look more like a rabbit than his namesake implied, bounced up into the air once more before coming back down onto the bed and fix him with a questioning stare with his big, black eyes.

"What?"

"Please stop doing that," Henry implored. "It's very distracting."

"Boy, somebody's missing the days when I had to pretend to be a doll all the time," Terriermon huffed, folding his tiny arms over his round chest and frowning.

"I don't," Henry sighed again in exasperation.

"You don't?"

"No, it's just… It's like I said: it's distracting."

"Henry, all you're doing is coding some program. You do it so much I bet you could do it in your sleep and not have a problem. It's no big deal. Me on the other hand? Do you have _any_ idea how hard it is to stay perfectly still for hours and hours while Suzie dresses you in funny clothes?" A pained look appeared on his face and he seemed to shrink in on himself. "Until the Devas came along I didn't think I would ever be able to blink again."

"All right, enough with the guilt trip." Shaking his head, Henry turned back to his computer screen.

"Momentai, Henry. I didn't mean it." Hopping down from the bed, Terriermon strolled over to where Henry sat and, using his ears like arms and hands, climbed up onto the boy's shoulder, his usual spot. "What're you working on?"

"I'm trying to understand how the code for our digivices work. It's the same one that Shibumi used for digimon, the Arc, and the blue cards. I'd like to know why they're sentient but our digivices aren't."

"Maybe they are and you just don't know it," Terriermon suggested, hopping down. Henry raised an eyebrow at him.

"What makes you say…?"

Before he could finish his sentence, the door to his room creaked open and in walked Henry's younger sister, Suzie Wong holding a pillow to her chest while behind her stood a chocolate-colored clone of Terriermon, ears raised in apprehension. Suzie wobbled on her feet as she clutched at the door, face flushed. Henry was on his feet in an instant upon seeing her, alarmed.

"Suzie! What are you doing out of bed! You should be resting!"

"I'm sorry," the brown-colored digimon—Lopmon, who, unlike her counterpart, was meant to be a rabbit—apologized. "She insisted on leaving her room."

"I can't sleep big bwother," Suzie mumbled. "Can I come in here?"

_Oh man…_ Taking hold of her, Henry lifted her over to the bed and laid her down. "All right, but only if you promise to sleep, okay?"

"Hope you had your shots, Henry," Terriermon joked. Henry shot him a dark glare that caused Terriermon to raise his ears up in a placating gesture. "Sorry Henry. Don't worry Suzie, with Lopmon and I here we'll make sure you drop right off to dreamland. How does that sound?"

Suzie offered the rabbit-dog digimon a wan smile as she snuggled under Henry's blankets. Henry propped her pillow under her blanket and smiled reassuringly.

"Do you need anything? Water? Juice?"

"Could you tell me a story?" Suzie whispered. Henry gaped, looking at her and then at his computer, as though resistant to do so.

_Oh, who am I kidding?_ he thought, surrendering to the situation with a resigned smile. _It's not like I can't work on that any other time._

"All right. What story would you like to hear?" he asked, getting up to go to her room where all her bedtime books were. _"Peach Boy? Am I Small? The Great Potato? Carp Streamers?"_

Suzie shook her head.

"Guess she doesn't want to hear any of those, Henry," observed Terriermon.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious."

"She's read all her books today," Lopmon supplied.

"I don't have any that I can read to her," Henry said, rubbing the back of his head while his brow worked itself into knots. "I gave mine all to her when she turned three."

"So? Make one up!"

"I… Terriermon, I can't make up stories."

"Why not?"

"I just… I've…I've never told one in my life!"

"Oh come on, you lied to your parents during the entire time you were keeping me a secret from them. This shouldn't be too hard." Turning toward the little girl Terriermon smiled. "What do you say? Do you want Henry to tell you a story you've never heard before?"

"Yeah!" At that, Suzie's spirit seemed to perk up. "I want a stowy about a pwincess and a knight and a castle…"

"Hold on…" Henry began.

"But I want a stowy about a pwincess and a knight!" Suzie gave him a sorrowful, pleading face that caused Henry to rub the bridge of his nose. Clearly the fates conspired to make his evening as difficult as possible.

"Please?" Suzie whispered. "I'll be quiet and I'll go wight to bed!"

"Got to say Henry, that's a pretty good deal for making stuff up on the spot."

Henry groaned and pulled his chair over. "You're not the one having to make stuff up." Sitting himself down, Henry racked his brains for something that would get the ball rolling.

_Knights and princesses huh? Kind of old fashioned, but… _He closed his eyes, deepening his thoughts. _This is crazy. I can't come up with stories. This is just…_

There came a spark of inspiration as Takato and Rika suddenly came to mind.

_ Oh!_

"All right," Henry said, moving closer to Suzie, smiling. "I've got one about a princess and a knight. Are you ready?"

Burrowing herself deeper into the blankets and eyes sparkling, Suzie nodded eagerly, waiting to hear what kind of tale her older brother would weave as he said the words that began many a story.

"Once upon a time…"

**###**

A/N: The inspiration for this fic comes from a pair of pictures I saw some months back that had Henry telling Suzie a story about Takato and Rika as a knight and princess, with the second one involving a blushing Rika interrogating poor Henry about what kind of stories he's telling about them with Takato in the background trying to calm her down. I don't know who drew them and I hope that it's not a problem that I write a fanfic based off these images. At any rate, I hope you all enjoy this little fic. 'Till next time. :P

-Crazyeight

3


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 2

In a land far, far away, there strode a brown-haired, crimson-eyed youth, a tattered red cloak wrapped him, covering a mud-stained white shirt with a symbol—three triangles surrounding a fourth and connected together by a ring—emblazoned on his chest. At his side was girded a sword, simple in appearance with a bronze pommel. He led a rust-colored horse behind him, bags strapped to it, alongside a gold-ringed shield. In the past, the youth was known as the _Crimson Knight_. To his friends he was simply Takato Matsuki. To himself, that was all he was and though he once saw himself as something more, he didn't any longer. Now he simply contented himself with making his way through the countryside, seeking a path, though what path that was didn't matter. just as long as there was a path for him to tread upon.

Behind him his horse—whom he named _Guilmon_ once upon a time—whickered and Takato smiled over his shoulder, though his lips didn't touch his eyes.

"Don't worry boy," he soothed. "We'll make camp soon, I promise."

Nearly stumbling over a rock that protruded from the ground, Takato bit back a curse of annoyance. He had hoped that they would come across a village or town this way…somewhere that they could find shelter. He could smell rain on the air. He hated rain. It made making a fire difficult, made his clothes damp, and the ground turned to mud. He slogged through enough mud in his life to hate it and he wished he never had to deal with it for as long as he lived.

_Too bad my luck is never that good,_ Takato mused miserably. _It's always piling something on me, one thing after another._

He felt the muzzle of his horse nuzzle against his elbow as if sensing his dark thoughts. Reaching around, he patted him on the head, grateful for his presence.

"Yeah, I know boy. I should be happy. The war's over."

Yet, in spite of those words, he could not bring himself to feel happy. Just a panging…bitterness hung about him like a tapestry, and until he could get over it, he couldn't go home. As far as he was concerned, he was still there, fighting the war, only now it was inside him—an enemy he couldn't fight; an enemy he couldn't destroy. Not without destroying himself.

Better to be as far away from the people he loved and everything he called home until he healed.

The face of a girl with brown hair tied into a solitary pigtail flashed through his mind, and he quickly pushed it away. He wasn't certain that he could at all heal. Not after what was lost.

On they traveled, and a rumble of thunder rumbled off in the distance, causing Takato to draw up short and groan. Yes. It seemed the universe was absolutely determined to cause him trouble wherever his travels took him.

**###**

He and Guilmon now lay beneath the shelter of a large tree, a section of its roots raised up just enough to make a decent home for the night, offering ample room for the horse to stand and eat his feed while simultaneously providing a simple hole in its 'ceiling' for a campfire. It all seemed too good to be true, but at this point Takato wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth—whatever that saying meant.

_I'll probably regret it later,_ he thought, poking at the fire and blowing on it to encourage it to burn a little brighter so as to catch on the kindling. Luck—_good _luck—held and the flames eagerly licked at the wood. Takato leaned back into his cloak, set up as a makeshift blanket, and folded it around him, sighing heavily. Outside, the rumbling grew louder and Guilmon's ears twitched and flitted, but he continued to gulp down food. Takato smiled at him, knowing full well that the horse's appetite was bottomless.

_At least I have enough money to buy some more the next time we visit a town. I don't know how we're going to get by once winter hits. Maybe by then I'll be able to go home._

_ Home…_

He looked up through their 'chimney' and his eyes became thoughtful and contemplative. He wondered how his friends, Kazu and Kenta were doing.

_They should be home by now. Their unit left before I did. I hope they aren't worrying about me. I don't want them going out looking for me. They'll probably get lost if they did. _He gave a dry chuckle. Knowing his friends as he did, he was confident that such a thing would happen. It did so once before. _Maybe this time they'll have better sense._

Guilmon snorted in his feedbag and turned an eye toward him.

"Great," Takato said. "Now you're going to make me feel responsible, aren't you?"

Guilmon snorted again and resumed eating. Whether it was the horse's intention or not, Takato felt a pang of guilt all the same. Kazu and Kenta were his closest friends. Once enough time passed they _would_ come looking for him.

Not wanting to think about it right now, Takato shifted in his spot and closed his eyes, determined to get some rest. The day had been long and tomorrow was going to be even longer.

**###**

The rain didn't leave him alone, even in his dreams. He was pelted by it and a sharp wind buffered him on all sides, causing his shirt to blow around him, allowing the cold to slip in and snake around his body. Takato tried to clamp down around it with his arms to keep the chill out, but found himself unable to do so. In the blue mist that surrounded him, he found his gaze drawn inexplicably downward, whereupon he spied a girl standing tall before a burning beast he had never seen before. It snarled angrily at the girl, but she didn't seem to be the least bit concerned about the beast. Her violet eyes were as steel, unyielding and unblinking, even with her hair, as bright and fiery as the animal before her, blew in front of them. Adjusting her grip on the bronze vajra staff she held in her hand, she brought it down to point at the burning animal. Mouthing incantations that Takato could only just barely hear above the wind, she unleashed four fiery fox-like apparitions that surrounded the beast and immediately began attacking it. The animal howled in fury, slashing at the apparitions, but its blazing claws did no more damage than it would attacking thin air.

The foxes however were quite the opposite. Great, gaping wounds burst forth from its body, sending sparkling light bleeding into the air. The foxes continued their devastating attacks until, finally, the animal crashed to the ground, the fires surrounding its body dying down to little more than embers as it stilled, becoming less and less responsive. Finally, as the foxes withdrew, the last of its light vanished, leaving nothing more than a smoldering corpse lying in the rain.

The girl, her expression though hard, took on a touch of sadness for but a moment. The moment vanished quickly however as she turned and looked in his direction. Her brow furrowed slightly in suspicion and curiosity, and she spoke.

"Who are you?"

That was when Takato awoke with a jolt and smacked his forehead against the 'ceiling' of his campsite.

**###**

"Ow, ow, ow, ow…"

Takato rubbed the swelling bruise on his head as he finished retracting the feedbag from around Guilmon's face. The horse snorted, glad to be free from the confines of the bag.

"Sorry about that," Takato apologized, petting him down. "Are you ready to go?"

Guilmon tossed his head and snorted again, apparently more than ready. With a light laugh, the youth went to finish putting out the fire and collect his things. Sword back around his waist and supplies plus shield repacked, the pair took to the path once more, Takato taking a moment to thank the tree for its generosity. He took a deep breath as they plodded along, his lungs basking in the fresh air. Yes, there was mud, and that made the walk somewhat hard going, but the sun was out and birds were chirping. It all left him feeling deeply refreshed and he thought he could walk to the end of the Earth, a far cry from how he felt yesterday.

_Aside from the bump on my head that is…_ Takato grumbled, rubbing at the offending bruise once more. There was nothing he could do about it though except to wait for the swelling to go down and nature to take care of itself.

_I wonder what the deal was with that dream,_ he thought, brushing aside a twig from a low-hanging branch that threatened to poke him in the eye._ I hope I'm not getting visions again. That's the last thing I need. All they do is get me into trouble. Literally._

The day wore on as he and his steed pressed forward. As they did so, Takato found himself becoming peripherally aware of an acrid stench. At first he thought that it might be smoke from his fire that had gotten in his clothes, but it only grew stronger as he traveled. Repeated questing with his nose from both his clothes and that of Guilmon revealed nothing.

_Something's burning ahead. Or burnt. Whatever it is, it's big. _Reaching down he loosened his sword in his sheath—an old habit—and continued on. Already his dream seemed to be more and more a reality.

In the end, he was not in the least bit surprised when he came upon the burnt body of the creature from his dream, lying prone in the middle of a clearing.

"Stay here Guilmon," Takato said to his horse as he dropped the reins. Drawing his sword he carefully approached the dead beast.

_It looks a little bit like a Nue,_ he thought, flanking the corpse and taking in its massive form. It was lion shaped, much like the yokai of legend, only it lacked the distinguishing features—what features remained identifiable—of the mythical monster. The tail looked fairly common of the large cats, the tigers, as opposed to a snake tail, and from what he could make out from the face it was decidedly feline and not anything like a monkey. Approaching it carefully he prodded the monster with the point of his sword, and he let out a sigh of relief when it didn't respond.

The small nudge at the base of his spine nearly caused him to cry out in shock.

_"Guilmon!"_ he scolded his horse upon whirling around, sword raised. Rolling his eyes he took hold of his reins once more. "I told you to _wait _over there! Why didn't you?"

Guilmon simply tossed his head and neighed at him, as though to say, _"Why are you asking me for? You can't understand me."_

Not that the lack of a translation stopped Takato. "Very funny, Guilmon. What would you have done if that thing was undead or something?"

The horse simply stared at him as though he were stupid. Takato, as always, filled in the blanks for himself. Guilmon, being a trained warhorse, would do one of two things: either attempt to trample the offending demon in an attempt to save his master, or bolt for the hills. Given what the horse went through by Takato's side, the former was far more likely than the latter.

"What am I going to do with you?" the youth asked rhetorically, sheathing his sword. He didn't expect an answer this time, though Guilmon looked at him with what he could only imagine was amusement. Truly, the minds of horses were indeed a mystery to him. "Well, there's nothing that I can learn here. Might as well keep going."

Giving the dead creature wide berth, he and Guilmon proceeded onward, though he gave some attention to the ground, looking for traces of the girl from his dream. Was she real, like this creature turned out to be? Or was there nothing more to the dream than a coincidence.

_She saw me,_ he thought. _She saw me in my dream. _He shuddered. He _really_ hoped there was nothing to his dream. Because if there were, it could only mean disaster would follow in his footsteps.

Just as it did before, on the last day of the war.

4


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 3

"Why are you stopping?" asked Suzie, her hands tightly clinging to the blanket as she looked at her brother expectantly. "Takato didn't meet the pwincess yet!"

"Just a second Suzie," Henry said, smiling at his little sister in a placating manner. "I just need to check on something."

Tapping a few buttons on his computer's keyboard, he heard a small beep from his speakers. Nodding to himself he turned back to Suzie and sat down.

"All set?" asked Terriermon. Henry nodded. "It's about time," the rabbit-dog continued, sitting back and crossing his arms over his chest in false annoyance. "Suzie's right. You don't stop a story like that. What were you thinking?"

Henry fixed his partner with a sharp look before returning his attention to Suzie, a smile on his face.

"Okay. Where was I?"

**###**

Brushing aside some dirt, a red-haired girl carrying a bronze, vajra staff bent down to analyze the hoof marks she had been following.

_Yeah…_ she thought. _They're the same as before. _Getting up, her eyes, a cool, deep night of violet, followed the tracks to a tree with upraised roots. Heading over to it, she dropped down and sniffed the air, smelling smoke from the buried ashes, still containing a smoldering coal. She looked over the impressions in the dirt floor of the 'house'.

_He's human all right._ She tilted her head to one side, noting a particular indentation sitting off to where the camper lay. _Armed too. Looks like a sword judging by the groove. _

She narrowed her eyes, wondering if that meant that this person, whoever he was, was a threat. She heard tales of war—a terrible, devastating war—from up north, but nothing more than rumor. A sick redness filling the sky… A tower that resembled a person… A great dragon… These were just some of the things she heard before setting out. So far she experienced nothing that confirmed any of the stories. All she encountered to date were beasts like the one from last night before the apparition appeared.

Then again, the beast itself was not normally seen in this area.

_Could it be that it was running from something?_ She furrowed her brow and stepped away from the campfire. There was little more she could learn here beyond that the source of the apparition _had_ been here—she could sense the faint traces of his aura. Whoever it was hid it rather well. She had only a vague impression of a location when he first appeared, but nothing more since he vanished into the night. She was lucky to have spotted a trail at all while backtracking.

By the looks of things, this was a person who did not want to be found.

Her shadow quivered next to her. Reaching down, she pat it before returning to full height again.

_He might not be a problem,_ she thought to herself. _But I can't just ignore this. I should at least make sure he's not going to be a threat, and if not… I can let him go wherever it is he's going without any trouble._

_ But if not…_

Closing her eyes, she cast her mind out, searching for any sign of her quarry. She couldn't sense anything though, except perhaps a small trickle of…something. Not quite the same as earlier. Something felt different. Something that left a bad taste in her mouth, but no matter how much she tried she couldn't get anything more than uncertainty about whether what she sensed was even there at all.

_At least it's on the same path,_ she thought, reopening her eyes. As she prepared to begin her pursuit, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Looking down, she spotted a small, red sphere lying on the ground, barely larger than an apple seed. Kneeling down she looked at it carefully. It almost seemed to quiver at her closeness and Rika backed off warily. The quivering stopped almost immediately.

_That's different…_

Hefting her staff, Rika considered what to do about this odd discovery. That odd feeling she sensed…this seemed to be the source. It seemed to be a fragment of something, though of what she couldn't say.

_I'll bet that ghost guy could tell me,_ she thought. _It might be his too, though why he would be carrying something like this… _She shook her head. _Maybe he really is a danger after all._

She wasn't getting any answers like this. Raising a hand, she quietly mouthed an incantation, encapsulating the spheroid in a shield. Lifting it, she placed it in a pouch tied to her waist belt. Sealing it up, she checked it to make sure it was secure, her mouth set into one thin line. She didn't like having this…_thing…_bumping against her hip. Felt like a small burn she couldn't get rid of.

Beside her, her shadow flickered yet again, as though sharing her agitation. She ignored it. Looking ahead toward the horizon, she set off at a brisk pace before jumping into the air, taking flight.

**###**

"Henwy?" Suzie asked, her voice throaty and barely above a whisper. "Could you get me a glass of water?"

Henry paused in his story telling before nodding. "Sure thing, Suzie. I'll be back."

Getting up from his chair, Henry exited the room and headed toward the kitchen.

"So…" began Terriermon as Henry pulled a glass from the kitchen cupboard. "You're _really_ mixing a lot of real life into this story, aren't you?"

Henry flipped on the faucet and placed the glass underneath.

"Rinchei is writing a short story for school. He said that sometimes you have to 'write what you know', and…" He chuckled softly. "…Takato and Rika take the place of knight and princess very well."

"Especially after the Parasimon invaded," Terriermon grinned. Henry's smile fell a little and he frowned at the rabbit-dog digimon.

"Terriermon…"

"So is including the D-Reaper also a part of that whole 'write what you know' stuff? Talk about lack of originality!"

"Look, I'm just making this up as I go along. I've never told a story before without already having it in front of me."

"I'm not complaining. Well, except for the fact that the story lacks me. No story is complete without my awesome personality."

"Don't fly too close to the sun," Henry joked. Looking back at the glass, he quickly turned off the water, seeing that it was now overflowing. Pouring out some of the water so as to prevent any spilling when giving the glass to Suzie, he started back toward the bedroom, Terriermon following along, his long ears dragging on the floor behind him.

"So all that stuff about Takato dreaming about Rika… Any of that true as well?"

"No," Henry laughed. _"That_ I just made up. Seemed like a good way to make the story a little more interesting."

**###**

"Here you go," Henry said, passing the glass to Suzie, who took it gratefully and began gulping it down. After a couple seconds, she pulled the drink away and made a satisfied gasp for air.

"That was puwfect!" she said in her childish voice. "Okay! Time to go back to the stowy!"

"Right," Henry nodded. "Back to the story. Anyway, so after Rika started flying after Takato…"

**###**

Takato felt a chill run through his back as he and Guilmon plodded along, and he pulled his cloak closer around his body. Behind him, Guilmon whickered, as though unsettled by something.

"It's okay, boy," he said, looking over his shoulder and giving his horse a comforting smile. "It's just the cold. It's no big deal."

Guilmon tossed his head, not believing him. Takato's smile slipped and he frowned. Something wasn't right. Guilmon's warhorse instincts were good. They had to be in order to survive the entirety of the war. His own instincts told him that something was off as well. Danger was afoot, there was no question about it. Though what the source he could not say. There was nothing but forest around him, dark and deep on all sides.

_Bandits?_

The thought felt wrong. That chill that ran down his spine… It almost felt like… _No. That can't be… It was destroyed._

Takato gave a nervous chuckle _Yeah. I'm just being paranoid, that's all. There's no way that _thing_ could be around. I saw it die myself. I guess I just haven't gotten over it._

His smile felt forced though and his hand drifted to his belt, seeking an item that hung there for so very long during the Great War—the _Red War._ A small piece of metal that lit up when a particular enemy was nearby, now long gone—abandoned.

Shaking his hand as if to scold it, he shifted it over to the handle of his sword, loosening it in his scabbard. He cast his eyes about, searching for any sign of something out of the ordinary. He may not have his warning lamp anymore, but his senses still functioned well enough without it. His teacher _beat _it into his very nerves. If he were taken unawares, it would be through his own clumsiness.

_I'm not hearing any birds, _he finally noticed, and he nearly kicked himself for a dope for not picking up on that sooner. The forest was quiet…far too quiet for this time of day.

"I don't get it. There aren't even any birds chirping. And I can _see_ a bird right in front of…"

Takato stopped as his gaze slid over the 'bird' sitting on the tree in front of him, and then was forcibly jerked back to it. His mouth went dry at the sight of the bird, only it wasn't actually a bird. It had the appearance of one, but only in the loosest sense that, at first glance, seemed more like a childish attempt at drawing an avian into existence. Upon a closer look, it became more of mockery with a simple, round head devoid of feathers and soulless black eyes staring outward, blank and seemingly unaware, but seeing. Blocky wings spread outward, a pair of golden eyes imprinted underneath.

_A Reaper Scout!_

Takato's sword was out in a flash as he dropped Guilmon's reins and he fell into a combat stance. His heart hammering in his chest, he looked around, desperately trying to see if there were any others, or worse pairing with it.

So focused was he on keeping an eye out for Reaper servants, he almost missed the predator—a giant, hulking black demon with wings—until Guilmon's scream caught his attention.

Guilmon kicked up its feet as the creature—Takato instantly recognized it as a Devil Dragon—swept toward him. Swearing, the youth dropped to the ground, knowing that if he stood and tried to fight, the monster would skewer him on its claws.

Guilmon, unfortunately, wasn't so lucky, and took the full brunt of the Devil Dragon's impact. Still screaming and kicking out with its hooves, smashing one of them into the dragon's left eye, the beast swatted the horse to the side, sending it smashing into a tree, shattering it. Guilmon hit the ground, and then was still.

_"Guilmon!"_ Takato shouted, surging back to his feet, sword in hand. Swinging quickly, the blade cut through the dragon's scales and struck bone. Roaring in pain and anger, the dragon jerked its claw back, taking Takato's sword along with it. The youth bit back another curse and jumped back. Bereft of his primary means of defending himself he dropped into a crouch, looking for some means of attacking or defending. There wasn't much. The terrain hampered the dragon's movement, but it was small enough for it to only matter in terms of long range attacks, and even then its large size enabled it to simply smash through barriers.

_How the heck did I not notice this thing?_ Takato wondered deliriously as he swept up a pointed branch. It was next to useless against the dragon's hide, but it was better than nothing. He tossed it from hand to hand while the dragon circled him, hissing angrily, getting a feel for the balance of the stick. Maybe if he was able to throw it right he could blind the creature…

_"Amethyst Wind!"_ shouted a voice, powerful and clear, on the wind, and as though it were a command a storm of shining, violet crystal rained down upon the dragon. Their razor edges pierced the beast's scales, causing it to roar angrily and turn its head up at the new source of pain.

That was a mistake, for the flurry of crystal smashed into its face, spearing its eyes and driving directly into its brain. With barely more than a croak, the dragon fell backward and collapsed, its weight causing the ground to shake violently, nearly upending Takato. He kept his footing however and he traced the eye of the violet storm to its source. His heart felt as though it ceased beating upon the sight of a fiery-haired girl floating gently on the wind, arms outstretched and surrounded by a blazing aura. She lit on the ground as lightly as a feather, the light vanishing from around her and she turned her gaze, eyes deep and mystical, toward him. When she spoke, time seemed to stop.

_"Takato, are you all right?"_

4


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 4

"_Takato… Are you all right?"_

Takato's crimson eyes snapped open, finding himself staring up at the branch-filled sky of Shinjuku Park, more specifically at the concrete hut that, for him and one other, was about as close to a home away from home as he could get right now.

_What a weird dream,_ he thought, glancing down at the crimson-scaled reptile that snored softly against him, head lying upon his leg. Smiling, he patted Guilmon's head and returned his gaze to the sky. The threads of his dream were escaping him, but strands of it remained. There was a bright light—he could remember that much—and a figure amidst it that reminded him of Sakuyamon. Even the voice of the speaker was eerily like the person who made up half of that particular digimon—Rika Nonaka. It was almost like the time when she rescued him and the other Tamers from the D-Reaper.

_Except she didn't ask me if I was all right,_ he thought, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. _She asked… I think she asked if we were all okay._

Takato shook his head, kicking himself for a dope for not remembering properly.

_That's a nice sunset…_

An alarm bell went off inside his head as he let that sink in. _Sunset._ One that was almost over no less! Stars were filling the sky, blinking almost in amusement at him.

"Awww…_nuts!"_ Takato exclaimed, jumping up, startling Guilmon awake.

"Hah? Takatomon? What's going on?"

"We've got to get home! We're la…_aaaugh!"_

_ "Takato!"_

Takato had no sooner gotten to his feet then did his leg collapse, numb and without feeling, sending him crashing to the concrete step. Blood that had been earlier blocked off by the digimon's weight now rushed through veins with a vengeance, setting the limb afire.

"Ow…" the brown-haired boy groaned, picking himself up from the stairs, rubbing his cheek where he had been scraped and massaging feeling back into his leg.

"Are you okay?" Guilmon asked, golden eyes alight with worry.

"Yeah boy, I'll be fine. Just…my luck having fun with me again. No big deal."

"I would think that your luck means a great deal," spoke up a voice behind them. Turning, the pair found a gold-furred, fox-like digimon standing atop the concrete bunker that, in ages past, served as Guilmon's home and hideout, arms garbed in purple gloves folded over her chest, standing perfectly framed in the light of the rising moon. Blue eyes locked with the two partners before, with a barely perceptible motion, she jumped into the air and materialized next to them. She dropped down to one knee to inspect Takato's injury.

"Hmmm… It doesn't appear to be _too_ bad…" she said, brushing a claw against the scrape. "Nothing that some cleaning won't take care of."

"Uh…yeah." Takato forced a chuckle, rubbing the back of his head nervously at the vulpine's closeness. "Um…I don't mean to sound like you're creeping me out, Renamon… I mean, you can be kinda scary sometimes, and I mean that in the nicest way…"

"I only meant to see if you were all right," Renamon replied with a barely visible smile appearing on her muzzle, deciding to get to his point before it became lost amidst the chaos of his nervous chattering. "And I'll take your statement about my 'scariness' as a compliment."

Guilmon laughed, throwing his claws into the air gleefully. "You should! You're the only one who doesn't need to dress up for Halloween!"

Renamon and Takato both tilted their heads to one side in mirror confusion at this before glancing at each other. As if an unspoken question were passed between them, Takato shrugged his shoulders and laughed, this time with far less nerves behind it.

"All the girls thought he was cute last Halloween when he went as himself," he explained. "Not very scary when you're trying to get into the swing of things."

"I even tried pointing a flashlight at myself like they do on TV," Guilmon moped, his bat-like ears drooping a little.

"I…see," said Renamon, trying to push the image of the large dinosaur carrying a plastic pumpkin and going from house to house out of her mind. She didn't want to hurt the reptile's feelings. "Discussions of luck and compliments aside, have either of you sensed anything…_odd _tonight?"

"Well…we accidently fell asleep so…" Takato shrugged helplessly and looked at Guilmon, who did likewise. "My digivice hasn't picked up anything either."

"Hmmm…" Renamon mused more to herself than to the two partners. "Neither has Rika's…"

"Is something going on?" Takato asked.

"I can't say for sure. Just…a feeling. It may be nothing." Shaking her head, Renamon stood up. "I'm going to patrol for a bit."

"Do you want us to come with you?" Takato likewise got to his feet, the fire in his leg having now subsided to tolerable levels.

Renamon turned, her tail cutting through the air with a powerful motion. "As I said, it might be nothing."

"A lot of our 'nothings' end up as 'something' you know."

Guilmon bobbed his head up and down in agreement. "Yeah. Takato once said that we attract trouble like a magnet."

"Do as you like," Renamon replied, smiling her small smile again. "As Rika would say, perhaps you'll stumble into it."

With that, the vulpine digimon vanished into thin air, leaving Takato and Guilmon to stare at the space she vacated, the former frowning slightly.

"You know, I swear she was making fun of us…"

"Wouldn't that be Rika making fun of us?" Guilmon asked. "I mean, Renamon did say, _"as Rika would say…""_

"Guilmon…" Takato laughed as the pair set off down the park path together.

**###**

"I asked if you were all right," the fiery-haired girl said, approaching the flabbergasted warrior cautiously, violet eyes narrowed. Blinking out of his stupor, an alarm went off in Takato's mind as he remembered…

_"Guilmon!"_ Quickly rushing in the direction where his horse had been thrown, he fell to his knees beside him, hands shaking, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. Lying on the ground, chest heaving with blood slowly flowing from his mouth, was the broken body of Guilmon. He whinnied softly upon seeing his master, and Takato placed a hand upon his side.

"Oh Guilmon… I'm so sorry boy…"

Approaching behind him, Rika took in a sharp breath upon seeing the condition the warrior's horse was in. She was surprised that he was still alive at all. Either it was sheer luck or a testament to the animal's will to remain with his master to the bitter end.

_A bad fate brought the dragon here,_ she thought, turning to look at the dragon's corpse. _But…maybe I can change that…_

Since her youth, she believed that destiny was something she chose. She detested anything that suggested otherwise. Her mother…

_No. I don't want to think about that right now…_

Approaching the dragon corpse she knelt down and dabbed the pointed tip of her staff into the pool of blood, twin to the one forming around the horse. Raising the staff she placed the tip against the dragon's scales and began to trace a circle upon it. Calligraphy… A skill she loathed once before due to her mother forcing her to learn it so as to be a 'proper lady' now had a use. Words she now inscribed within the circle… The Logos. Often overlooked, the written word held great power within the world, and most especially in magic. She herself learned the hard way how much power. Behind her, her shadow quivered again, twisting slightly so as to align itself with the grieving warrior as he comforted his friend. Adding the finishing touches, Rika stepped back and withdrew a brush from her belt. For this, she needed something a little smaller. Dabbing it in the blood, she turned and approached the warrior and his fallen steed, kneeling next to them. She touched the tip of her brush to Guilmon's side, but he didn't make so much as a sound. It was as if he didn't feel her as she began to draw a circle upon him.

_Spine must be broken,_ she thought grimly.

"W-What are you doing?" she heard the warrior ask.

"Fixing a mess," she replied tersely. "Don't distract me."

The warrior blinked, but after a moment he got to his feet. "My…My sword. I…I need to put him out of his misery…"

"That won't be necessary," Rika said, starting to add words. Although she wasn't looking at him, she could feel the arched eyebrow on his face as he looked at her.

"He's dying! In pain! I've got to…!"

"How much do you want him to live?" she asked, calm as ever.

"I…I don't…"

"How much?" she repeated, putting the finishing touches on the Logos Circle. Squaring himself, Takato swallowed and hooked a hand into his empty scabbard.

"More than anything."

"Then give me your hand, and show me your resolve."

Takato's lips parted, a thousand questions on his mind, but as he looked back and forth between the girl who knew his name and his dying companion, he returned to their side, offering his hand.

"Okay…" he began carefully. "What are you going to do?"

"Making a trade to save your horse's life," Rika said, clasping his hand and placing her free one onto the Logos Circle. "Hopefully it'll be a good one."

Takato was just about to ask what she meant by that when light flared up beneath the hand covering the Logos Circle and the one on the dragon. The light intensified until it burst outward, encompassing them all. Takato gasped as he felt a sudden surge of energy flow through him, nearly causing him to collapse. He caught himself though, and digging his hand into the dirt, he grated his teeth, willing himself to stay upright. He would not fall. He _refused_ to fall. Not if it meant saving his friend like the girl said.

Sweat crawled down his face and his breathing became labored. His body became heavier and heavier, but he had to pull through and last as long as he had to until the duty was done. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the light went out and, as if it were a signal, he sagged forth, all the strength gone from him. He barely noticed when he hit Guilmon's body as the horse lifted its head, eyes gleaming with a golden light within.

**###**

Takato and Guilmon were close to exiting Shinjuku park when they began to notice something odd.

Fog wasn't a rare sight in the city, but in recent times there was a clear division between what constituted 'normal' for the meteorological phenomenon and everything else. On a night or day with zero precipitation fog could only mean that a dimensional breach was eminent.

It happened with enough regularity that 'bio-emergence' forecasts were made to the public, for all the good that they did. Although decidedly unnatural, they shared considerable amount in common with earthquakes, one of which being damage and amount of time before a breach was made.

The only thing that could be said with certainty about their differences was that earthquakes typically did not manifest in the form of giant supernatural monsters composed of digital information.

"Guilmon?" Takato asked, noting the fog that seemed to rise up around them. His hand went to his side and retrieved an arch-shaped device—a digivice—and he checked its screen. A holographic circle projected itself above the device, but no information presented itself beyond the words _"no data"._

"I don't smell digimon," Guilmon said, testing the air. "But…there's definitely something here. Maybe this is what Renamon was talking about?"

"Looks like she was right," Takato groaned, pulling out a card from his pants pocket. "We really _did _stumble into it, didn't we?"

"She's always been right before," Guilmon observed, crouching down. "Why not now?"

Takato didn't reply as he peered around them, trying to find a sign of whatever it was that was coming through. The fog thickened and he felt his skin start to tingle as the hairs on his arms began to stand up. He _sensed_ something behind him, but upon turning he saw nothing there.

_What's going on here?_

A low growl filled the air, and both Guilmon and Takato followed its source to find a pair of burning, golden eyes framed by black shadow towering above them. Shadow-like wings spread outward, blowing the mists away. Solid, twisting, serpentine night reared back before lunging at them with an explosive roar, fire erupting from the depths of its mouth.

4


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 5

Henry paused in his story as he heard his digivice beep behind him.

"Oh man, just when it was getting to a good part," grumbled Terriermon as the boy got up to look at it. "All right," the rabbit-dog continued, stretching his arms and then taking on a defiant pose. "What digimon is looking to get its butt kicked by Terriermon?"

Lifting his digivice, Henry tilted his head to one side, slightly puzzled.

"None, I…guess." Henry frowned. _Why did it activate?_

No digimon, huh?" Folding his arms over his curved belly, Terriermon smirked triumphantly. "Guess they decided to turn tail and run. Smart mon."

Not as confident in Terriermon's boast, Henry looked over to his computer. It was still running his program, but so far nothing was out of the ordinary.

_Were you doing something?_ he thought, returning his attention to his digivice. It didn't answer of course. As far as he knew it wasn't sentient.

_Maybe there wasn't anything at all,_ he mused, rubbing the side of his head, unable to think of anything his digivice might have done. Still…curious he pressed the button below its screen, causing a holographic circle to appear above it. The words _No Data_ stood prominently as the circle swiveled this way and that wildly. Flicking through screens came up with the same message. Satisfied, Henry closed out of the holo-circle and replaced the digivice on his desk. Smiling at Suzie, he set himself down.

"Sorry about that. Where were we?"

**###**

Takato Matsuki and Guilmon barely had enough time to register the giant gout of flame surging toward him before abruptly being hauled into the air by a familiar golden form. Hitting the ground with a grunt, Takato looked to spot a familiar vulpine figure as she flipped down in front of them.

"Renamon!"

"It looks as though I've upset your attacker," she noted as a hateful roar filled the air. Liquid shadow flapped through the fog like great wings, leaving burning embers cascading through the air.

"What is it?" Guilmon asked, testing the air. "It doesn't smell like a digimon at all."

"Let's see…" Pulling out his digivice, Takato activated its scanning function. The words _No Data_ flashed across the holographic circle that materialized above it and he grimaced. "This is familiar…and in a bad way." The holographic circle receded and Takato looked back at their opponent as it swung its head—or at least what Takato thought was its head—back and forth, hissing angrily, searching for them. "Anyone got any ideas?"

"I don't believe that it's restricted to the digital field," Renamon said, her tail swishing in agitation and thought. "We can't allow it to leave the area."

Takato and Guilmon glanced at each other and the boy tightened his grip on his digivice.

"Time to pull out the big guns," Takato said and Guilmon nodded in agreement. Renamon did likewise. Without any information on the creature's powers or abilities, and backup likely to take time in coming, their best and quickest shot to contain the situation was overwhelming force. This was not the time to be cautious and find out that they were dealing with a Mega all along.

_"Biomerge activate!"_ Takato shouted, raising his digivice to the sky. The shadow-beast turned toward them and light burst forth, enveloping both the human and Guilmon, melding them together. Guilmon's body grew, becoming more humanoid and growing white plated armor resembling a knight. A red cape materialized behind him, and a lance and shield formed around his arms.

_"Guilmon! Biomerge tooo… Gallantmon!"_

The light exploded outward, blowing away the last of the fog and revealing the digital knight in all his glory. Lifting his golden eyes, Gallantmon focused on the twisting serpent. He frowned slightly. It seemed that it wasn't the fog that caused it to look the way it did. It indeed appeared to be made of little more than shadow, its depth shifting first this way and then that as though it weren't completely there.

_"Are we dealing with a ghost?"_ Takato heard Guilmon ask from the blackness surrounding the burning orange core that surrounded Takato's form from within Gallantmon's body.

_"I don't know boy, but we're going to find out one way or another."_ He lifted his arms and outside Gallantmon did likewise, bringing his shield and lance to bear on the creature.

_"All right,"_ Gallantmon announced, his voice a blend of the two partners. _"Stop right there! No one else has to get hurt…"_

The creature reared back and spat a shower of fire at the knight before he even finished. Cursing under his breath, Gallantmon leapt forward, positioning his shield between the attack and Renamon a split second before she vanished from view. The flame struck the shield and splattered uselessly on the ground below. The heat was tremendous and Gallantmon winced, feeling his shield start to heat up.

_That's not a good sign,_ Takato thought. With how durable his shield was, to feel heat this soon was a game changer. _"Looks like it was a good idea to biomerge first! This is like Zhuqiaomon all over again! We've got to put him out _now!"

Charging forward, Gallantmon surged through the fire, electricity starting to dance around the tip of his lance. Breaking past the flames, he lunged forth, unleashing a powerful blast of lightning from his weapon.

_"Lightning Joust!" _

The attack struck the creature and it writhed under the impact. From within his sphere, Takato gave a whoop of excitement that was shared by Guilmon. _We can affect it! We can do this!_

His and Guilmon's elation was cut brutally short. The shadows began to solidify and the creature's form became more concrete. Where before there had been only a vague, fog-like darkness there were now black, shining scales. Wings spread outward, casting off the coiling, hissing lightning from Gallantmon's attack, and obsidian fangs glistened in the dusk light. Baleful red eyes turned toward Gallantmon, glaring hatefully at the bane of dragons.

_"Um… What just happened?"_ Takato asked dumbly as the beast let out a low, guttural growl before opening its mouth again. Flames licked at the back of its throat as it reared back once again and shot another blast of fire at the knight. Gallantmon brought his shield up to defend himself, blocking the blazing inferno, only for the pair that made up his form to cry out in surprise as the beast slammed into them, using the fire-attack as a distraction for a more physical confrontation. Claws leapt out, scraping along Gallantmon's armor, scouring its surface and causing sparks to dance around them.

_"Can't get our weapons up…"_ Guilmon grunted from the void surrounding Takato. _"Takato… We're in a bit of a pickle…"_

_ "I've got an idea!"_ Not taking a second to explain himself, he drew his arms close to his waist. Outside in the real world, the lance and shield vanished, leaving only his armored hands. The effect was immediate. The dragon fell forward, no longer supported by the shield in front of it. Gallantmon quickly took hold of it, attempting to wrestle it down. The idea was sound. For all the dragon's strength, its limbs lacked the reach and dexterity to be able to combat the maneuver. Its jaws on the other hand, or more accurately its neck, lacked no such limitation, and quickly dove forward, clamping around Gallantmon's wrist and biting hard. Fangs found their way to the joints and began to dig in, its neck twisting powerfully.

_What is _with_ this thing?!_ Takato grunted, feeling the pressure on the plate around his arm starting to buckle under the pressure._ Our armor is Chrome Digizoid! He shouldn't be this tough!_

Armor shrieked and Takato bit down to stop from screaming. The fangs punched through the metal and bit down around his hand, puncturing digital flesh and bone. Guilmon quickly took hold of the pilot seat and raising a foot, stomped down on one of the dragon's clawed feet, returning the favor. Roaring, the dragon released its grip, taking small shreds of metal along with it, and the two combatants fell back.

_"Takato! Are you all right?!"_ Guilmon asked frantically as he nursed their injured hand.

_"Could… Could be better…"_ Takato grated, trying to remember the last time he had been seriously injured in Guilmon's Mega form. Standing up straight, he raised his uninjured hand to the sky and his lance reappeared around it. _"All right… Let's…"_

Gallantmon stumbled a little as Takato's vision swam unexpectedly.

_"What…?"_ he began, only to spot the dragon rushing toward him again, fangs dripping with some kind of black liquid. Raising his lance, he caught the dragon's mouth just before it could get a hold of him. Insidious blackness splashed along the metal surface, causing it to darken and corrode.

_Venom?_ a small, suddenly distant part of him wondered, his vision swimming again. _Aw nuts…_

_ "Diamond Storm!"_ came the shout of Renamon as she somersaulted above them, unleashing a flurry of glowing, razor-sharp shards that struck the dragon's scales to no effect. Not deterred, Renamon dropped down, feet and hands glowing with blue fire and she struck the dragon in the much more vulnerable eye. _This _time the dragon roared with pain and retreated back, releasing Gallantmon's lance. Gallantmon staggered, trying to right himself before dropping down to one knee.

"Are you all right?" Renamon asked, landing next to him.

_"We will be once the world stops spinning,"_ Gallantmon replied, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it. His mind felt foggy. Whatever that dragon did to him, it was taking its toll rapidly. Forcing himself back onto his feet he raised his lance and took aim. _"It's time to end this! Lightning Joust!"_

Throwing all his strength into the attack, Gallantmon shot a powerful blast of electricity at the dragon, who took it full force just as it blasted a raging torrent of fire in return. A powerful explosion rocked the park, forcing Renamon to teleport away to avoid getting caught up in it as trees were blown into shards and slivers. As the fire and thunder began to settle, Renamon rematerialized, casting her azure eyes about, searching for any sign of the Tamer and his partner…and any further danger from the dragon.

"Takato! Guilmon!" She narrowed her eyes and extended her senses. She could detect Guilmon, though it was faint. Of the dragon, she detected nothing, though that didn't change anything.

_I could barely detect it to begin with, even after it…realized._ Her tail swished through the air in agitation but she forced herself to calmness. There was no sound. Renamon's ears pricked for even the slightest hint of it but as yet she heard nothing to indicate that something that size still moved or even lived. There was only the settling of debris, the crackling of fire, and trees as their branches recovered from the shockwaves of battle.

Her eyes glowed slightly as she peered through the smoke. _Finally_ she spotted three unmoving figures, two of whom were lying on the ground.

_Three…?_

Reacting quickly, Renamon teleported directly over the unconscious forms of Takato and Guilmon. Her eyes widened in surprise as the third figure, kneeling over them with a glowing, violet-gloved hand placed on Takato's back, turned her violet eyes up to meet Renamon's blue ones.

_"Rika?!"_ Renamon exclaimed.

The jingle of the rings on the girl's vajra staff was all the warning she had before 'Rika' stabbed at her with its pointed spike. Light exploded and Renamon found herself flying backward, crashing into the ground and rolling up against a fallen tree. Quickly getting up, Renamon shook her head. The attack hurt, but not enough for a spur-of-the-moment act to do more than startle her.

_It's not her,_ she decided. Apart for the rather obvious difference in Rika carrying the staff of their biomerged form of Sakuyamon and casting energy blasts, there was just no way for her to be here. Not when Renamon left her at home to investigate on her own.

"I don't mean any harm," Renamon said, displaying her claws in an open, nonthreatening gesture. "I merely wish to see to my friends."

"I don't recognize you as being one of my…_ally's _friends," the girl said, standing up. Renamon tilted her head to one side.

_Interesting… She even sounds like Rika._ That however was not the most pressing issue at hand. The girl who looked like her partner referred to Takato as her 'ally', though how that was she did not know."Perhaps…there is a great deal you do not know about him. If we could talk…"

Hefting her staff, an azure aura appeared around the girl.

"No," the girl said, firing a bolt of energy in Renamon's direction. The vulpine digimon, undeterred, simply vanished from view and reappeared directly behind her. Unwilling to harm someone who looked so much like her partner she simply grabbed hold of Takato and Guilmon, preparing to teleport them away.

It was just then that the shadows leapt up and grabbed hold of her.

"Wha…?" Renamon began in shock, only for her strength to immediately start to fade as an intense cold seeped into her limbs where the shadows clutched. Eyes flashing, 'Rika' spun around and pointed a hand at her, an intricate ring of light and symbols materializing upon her palm.

"I _knew_ you were false…" she began as energy built up around her palm.

Just then, electricity sparked from Takato's digivice and coiled around 'Rika'. Her aura winked out of existence, and she became as a shadow, like the dragon from earlier, before vanishing altogether. Renamon blinked as warmth and strength returned to her. Looking down at her claws she glanced down at the unconscious pair below. Although it was difficult to tell with Guilmon due to the light and red shade of his scales, Takato on the other hand looked sickly and pale. Touching his forehead with her palm, she drew in a sharp breath, finding him cold and sweating profusely. His body—and Guilmon's she noted—were starting to shiver. She remembered them stumbling following being bitten by the dragon.

_I've got to get them to the hospital quickly!_

Taking hold of them once more, the trio vanished from view, leaving behind a thin humanoid shadow assembling itself behind them.

5


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 6

In an office in front of a computer, a balding man with a yellow jacket hung over the back of his chair typed furiously, his gaze unflinching in front of the glare of the screen, while behind him a blonde-haired man wearing sunglasses casually flicked a lighter open and closed. In spite of outward appearances, the two were in stark contrast to each other. The balding man—Gorou 'Shibumi' Mizuno'—a programming guru in part responsible for the creation of the artificial intelligence programs known as digimon, was in his element and loving every minute of it. The blonde man—Mitsuo Yamaki—a government agent part of a secret Japanese intelligence agency known as Hypnos, largely responsible for the management of digimon and protecting the general public from their occasional rampage—was considerably more tense; the flicking of his lighter a leftover from an old smoking habit that he repeatedly quit and took up again. In spite of his calm expression, he was a wire of tension. His job—his _duty _to protect the safety and wellbeing of the entire world_—_afforded him few luxuries when it came to relaxing.

The two lived in the same world and now shared a similar vision, but they plainly had different experiences with the alternate one that dwelled on their minds.

"This is what one of my friends sent me. He's been analyzing the detectable structure of the digital world and overlaying it with the Earth. He believes that part of what makes the digital world what it is has to do with the Van Allen Radiation belts that surround us."

"Does he think that the Van Allen belt is a part of the digital world?" Yamaki asked, reading over a line on Shibumi's screen.

"Unfortunately because the data is still new he can't say with any certainty. He _believes_ that there is a correlation, as the structure of the digital world is similar to the layers of Van Allen belt. In fact, if one were generous, you could almost view it as the upper-most atmosphere of the digital world."

"So what are you saying? That the digital world has always been around?"

"It may be so," Shibumi nodded. "All the stories from the past that we've had… The digital world could very well be an evolution of an earlier world due to the interaction of human data with the Earth's electromagnetic field. The Van Allen belt could have been a source of energy for any primitive life forms. There is consistent exposure of radiation from space and some minute traces of antiprotons as well…" Shibumi ran a hand over the hairless portion of his head and took a deep breath that spoke of the amazement he felt over this hypothesis. "It's a _fascinating_ idea, and it makes me wonder how the digital world could evolve in the future. We're bombarding it with more and more data, and the digimon themselves are changing because of it."

Yamaki grimaced, not certain if he liked what that entailed. While he now had a great deal of respect for digimon, particularly in regards to the relationship that the Tamers had with their partners, he wasn't certain that the human world was ready for that kind of existence. Maybe one day, but now? And even if they were, could the Tamers—any Tamer or group of them—handle it?

_The D-Reaper nearly destroyed both worlds and the Sovereign nearly brought Hypnos to its knees. We're only scratching the surface so far. There are too many unknowns right now, and if the digital world changes before we've caught up…_

Yamaki's train of thought was broken by the ringing of his cell phone. Pulling it out of his coat pocket he flipped it open.

"Yamaki," he said curtly, his brow frowning slightly. Shibumi turned, noticing the expression.

"Call the other Tamers and arrange a meeting. I want hourly reports on Takato's condition as they come in."

"Is everything all right?" Shibumi asked, getting out of his chair, alarmed.

"Renamon delivered Takato and Guilmon to the hospital," Yamaki replied grimly, already beginning to dial another number. "They were injured in battle with a digimon."

**###**

The ringing of the phone broke Henry out of his story-telling almost as soon as he resumed it. It seemed that everyone looked in its direction with a look of annoyance.

"I'll…be right back," Henry sighed, getting up from his chair. Suzie, pouting, pulled the sheets up to her chin and nodded in resignation.

"Whoever it is had better be dying!" Terriermon huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Terriermon…" Henry scolded, opening up the door.

"What? I'm just saying that this had better be an emergency. I'm serious. You're getting way too many interruptions."

Shaking his head, Henry headed out into the kitchen and lifted the phone off the hook, not for the first time wishing that his father would spring for cell phones like Rika's family did.

_It would make things easier,_ he grumbled. "Hello?"

After a moment his eyes widened in shock.

**###**

"I am _so sorry!"_ Terriermon exclaimed as Henry tugged on his shoes and grabbed his jacket from off a hook on the wall. "I wasn't serious when I said that!"

"No one's blaming you Terriermon!" Henry replied somewhat frantically, tugging on his jacket now. _At least Jaarin is here to keep an eye on Suzie,_ he thought, turning toward her as she looked at him from the end of the hallway with an expression that was both worried and exhausted. She had been napping earlier and his sudden rush to get to the hospital where his friend was at had awoken her up rather abruptly.

"All right, we're out of here! Sorry, Jaarin, and tell Mom and Dad what happened."

Jaarin nodded as Terriermon hopped onto his partner's shoulder and the two rushed out the apartment. Looking down the hall in the direction of Henry's room, she pressed her lips into a thin line, worrying about her two siblings.

**###**

"It's going to take us _forever_ to get there!" Terriermon said as they rushed out of the lobby and into the streets. "Henry! Digivolve me so we can…_whoa!"_

Henry drew up short as a massive form suddenly came to a landing in front of them, startling the pair. His grey eyes looking up, he saw a familiar, red-haired girl sitting astride a large, golden-furred fox with nine tails and a red-striped ribbon with bells wrapped around its neck—Renamon's digivolved form of Kyubimon.

"Rika!" Henry exclaimed in surprise.

"The one and only," the girl returned. "Kyubimon filled me in on what happened. Get on. I gave her a speed upgrade. We'll be there in a flash."

Taking the girl's hand, Henry was swung up onto Kyubimon's back and took hold of her by the waist. "Sorry," he blushed. Ignoring his discomfort, Rika adjusted her seating and tightened her grip on her partner's ribbons.

_"Let's go!"_

**###**

Jaarin poked her head into Henry's room to find Suzie sleeping in her brother's bed, face still slightly flushed from her light fever. Walking over to her, she nodded to Lopmon.

"How's she doing?"

"Tiwed," Suzie responded before Lopmon could even speak up. "Henwy was telling me a stowy." She paused and swallowed. "My thwoat huwts. Did Henwy say if that Angwy Kid," Jaarin smiled a little at her sister's nickname of Henry's friend, Takato, "is okay?"

"I'm sure he'll call when he knows something," Jaarin replied. "Would you like anything to drink? Water? Juice?"

Suzie shook her head and pulled the blankets ever closer.

"Okay," Jaarin said softly. "Let me know if you need anything. I'll be in the living room, okay?"

"Okay…" Suzie mumbled, already starting to drift off to sleep.

**###**

Takato awoke to the crackling of fire. He felt a warm presence to his side—his horse, Guilmon—head lying next to his, breathing softly. The knight rolled over onto his back and the animal snorted slightly, shifting in return. Takato blinked blearily, noting the shining specks that stood out prominently in the light of the fire, resembling scales…

"Wha…!" Takato bolted upright, startling the horse into wakefulness, revealing a pair of shining golden eyes, which did little more than serve to aggravate Takato's own surprise. His hand was already questing about for his sword, half-believing that Guilmon had been replaced by a demonic entity in his exhausted mind.

"I go through all trouble of bringing him back to full health only for you to think about cutting him down?" chided a voice from the other side of the fire, bringing Takato to a halt as his hand grasped the hilt of his weapon. "Maybe you're not what I thought you were…"

Takato turned toward the voice to find a red-haired girl staring at him with purple, thoughtful eyes. The girl from his dream. Memories flooded his mind… The battle with the dragon, the girl arriving, and Guilmon getting hurt…

"What…? I don't…" He looked back and forth between the horse and the girl, wheels turning inside his head as he organized his disjointed thoughts and relaxed. "You…You were there…earlier. You did something, didn't you?"

"Can't get anything past you, can I?" the girl snorted, poking at the fire with a stick. "Any other insights you'd like to tell me?"

Takato frowned at the girl and turned his attention to Guilmon, who was currently pressing his nose against his knee reassuringly. A smile crossed his features as he searched the horse over for injuries and finding none. The smile evaporated upon settling upon his face, finding the golden eyes and shining scales surrounding them. A pair of horns poked through the dark-red mane. "What did you do?"

"I thought it was obvious." she replied. "I healed him."

Takato placed a hand on the horse's face and Guilmon nuzzled him in return.

"You did more than that…"

"To heal him I had to make a trade. Some of it required your energy, but also some…mass. There was a convenient amount nearby so I used that. Not sure how it'll affect your horse since they're not the same kind of animal but…" the girl shrugged. "Better than being dead." She looked off to the side. "He has a bit of dragon in him now. Time will tell what will happen to him from here on out."

Her eyes flickered over to him as he got up and made his way over to her. Casually poking at the fire with the stick again, she watched him warily as he stopped in front of her and then, much to her surprise, dropped down to one knee and bent his head.

"Thank you," he said. "From the bottom of my soul, thank you. I don't know if I can repay you, but if I can, you only have to name it and I'll do what I can."

The girl eyed him carefully before returning her attention to the fire. Her shadow twitched and then shrank back a little.

"You shouldn't make oaths like that," she said. "What if I told you to repay me by killing someone?"

She saw Takato freeze up and she chuckled lightly.

"Relax. I won't ask you to do that. Just something for you to think about. You're a knight, aren't you? From the Order of Hypnos? You're from up north. I learned about your kind. I hear you take that sort of thing seriously."

"I…" Takato clutched his hands into fists before nodding. "Yeah. Honor is kind of important to us up there."

"You're a long way from home, aren't you?"

Takato didn't answer except with a nod. Getting off his knees he shifted into a more comfortable sitting position. "Um…what's your name, if you don't mind me asking? I don't mean to be nosy but…I'd like to know the name of the person who saved my and Guilmon's lives today?"

_"That's _what you call your horse?" The girl snorted in disbelief, remembering a childhood story. "Well… It sort of fits _now_ but he wasn't dragon-like until I got a hold of him." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He didn't seem fazed by her mocking tone. "You may call me Rika. I'm from a small country—the one you're on the borders of now—called _Makino._

"I've…never heard of that place before." Takato scratched the back of his head in embarrassment while she raised an eyebrow at him. "Sorry. I grew up in a pretty small village. We didn't have a whole lot going on there and not a lot of people passed through. I didn't even know that I was _descended_ from knights until the war…"

Takato's mouth halted on the last word. A shadow fell over his face and he looked away. Rika, noticing this, chose not to comment on it.

_ Best not to touch on it too soon,_ she thought, though the topic of war, she had to admit, certainly caught her curiosity. "So…" She began, picking up the threads of conversation. Where to go from here? This knight was surprisingly trusting and open, eager to talk except about a _war_. She needed information. "If I could ask…"

"How'd you know my name?" Takato asked suddenly, a memory sparking. Rika raised an eyebrow in confusion, and Takato cleared his throat before clarifying. "Back when you showed up, you asked me if I was okay. You said my name. How did you know it?"

"You must have been hearing things," Rika shrugged, not knowing what he was talking about. "I have no idea who you are." An idea came to her. "I would like to know what that trick was last night."

"Uh…huh?" Now it was Takato's turn to tilt his head to one side in bafflement. "Trick? Last night? I don't… I didn't…"

"Look, I'm a shaman. There's no sense beating around the bush. I _know_ you did something. That's why I was even there at all to rescue you." She narrowed her eyes at him. _"What_ are you? You're different. I can feel it."

Takato's hands drew up into fists and he looked away, unable to meet her gaze. "This has to be the craziest thing that's ever happened. It was _just _a dream. Or I thought it was…"

"Dreams often mean a _great_ deal."

"I wish they didn't," Takato said more harshly than he intended. Unclenching his hands he lay them at his lap, silently berating himself for being tempermental.

Rika's expression softened a little. "I'm…sorry if I'm touching on sensitive ground, but people don't usually show up out of thin air, floating and glowing like some kind of angel. There have been some strange things happening around these lands, and I'd like to get to the bottom of them." She frowned and looked at him more fully. "You said that you owed me. How about you start by telling me what happened last night. Why did I see you? And why are you here?"

"I just wanted to travel… See the world," Takato shrugged, his voice quiet. "As for what happened last night, all I know is that I just had a dream of you fighting a burning lion or whatever." He scratched the side of his head and looked at her apologetically. "Sorry I can't be of much more help than that. My friends always told me that I'm a little bit odd. I have visions sometimes. They sometimes get me into trouble." He grimaced. "Maybe I should get out of here… Find someplace else to go. I actually end up getting into trouble a _lot."_

That got Rika's attention. Leaning forward she said, "How about I help you learn what your visions are all about?"

Takato's crimson eyes met her violet ones. She saw him wavering but knew his duty as a knight—his duty to safeguard others—would still persuade him to go elsewhere unless otherwise detained. She didn't want to use up his 'payment' to her just yet.

"There are strange things happening in this land," she continued. "I've been investigating them, but I haven't come up with anything yet. You might be the key to unraveling all of the mysteries."

It took only a second of looking into his eyes to for her to know that she had him.

5


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 7

In the light of the new Shinjuku day, a dark shadow flitted across the sky before fading from view, only to rematerialize atop a tree branch. The sensor towers of Hypnos, a short distance off registered it as little more than a blip on its detection grid. The shadow, almost bird-like in appearance, tilted its head to one side as it surveyed its surroundings—a building with a brick wall and a gate surrounding it with a large group of children passing into it. As it craned its head skyward, it saw a golden-furred digimon appear from out of thin air, carrying a red-haired girl wearing a dark-grey uniform. The pair dropped down to the ground, and upon landing the girl hopped out of the arms of the yellow fox and brushed herself off.

"Thanks again for the lift, Renamon," Rika said, adjusting her bag.

"Of course," the vulpine replied, inclining her head slightly and giving the girl a barely-visible smile. "Do you still intend to visit the hospital after school?"

"If I haven't heard anything from Henry or Yamaki, yeah," Rika nodded. She cast her gaze over at the gates of her school the Kagurazaka Girls Academy, watching the students file in, exchanging greetings and laughter. "Really wish that I didn't have to be here now," she voiced with a bit of a grumble. Renamon placed a comforting paw on the girl's shoulder.

"I'm sure Takato will be all right. The doctor's said that the venom in his system had been diluted. But in the event that we don't hear anything, I believe it is appropriate to share the quote, "no news is good news"."

"You've been hanging around with Terriermon a little too much," Rika muttered with a touch of grim sarcasm, raising a sardonic eyebrow at her partner. "Anyway, I'm not worried about Gogglehead. He can take care of himself." She adjusted her grip on her bag, betraying the slight worry she felt in spite of her confident words. "All right. I'll see you later."

With that, Rika spun on her heels and went to join her classmates. Renamon watched her go for a moment before her ears twitched, as though in agitation. Her claws pulling into tight fists, her azure gaze flashed upward and she entered a battle stance. She scanned the tree line for a moment before relaxing.

_Odd… There was that feeling again…almost the same as from last night. Could Rika's 'twin' be nearby? Or some other creature like the dragon?_

Dropping her stance, the vulpine digimon leapt into the air in the direction of the presence that she sensed. Landing upon a tree limb she frowned. The presence…_disappeared._ Gone, without so much as a trace for her to follow. For all she knew it could have been her imagination.

Renamon however didn't believe that to be the case.

_Whatever it is, it's gone now. The other Rika disappeared, and the dragon seemed to have some difficulty realizing. Perhaps it's the same here._

She didn't like what this entailed. The digital world often intruded upon the real world. In spite of Hypnos' best efforts there was no longer any way to realistically keep the two dimensions separate. Adding another unknown into the mix was just asking for more trouble.

With nothing left to learn here, Renamon stood up on the branch and once more leapt off into the air. Although she hated the idea of leaving Rika alone, she felt that perhaps a visit to Hypnos was in order.

Several seconds passed, and the bird-like shadow reappeared, turning its head in the direction of Rika's school.

**###**

"I'm pretty sure we can rule out ghost dinosaurs," Kazu said from his spot in the concrete hut that served as their meeting place. "Even if the story Renamon gave us makes it sound like there is one running around."

Kazu Shiota, Kenta Kitagawa, Henry Wong, and Jeri Katou were all at the playground a short run away from their school, their respective digimon, Guardromon, MarineAngemon and Terriermon standing—or in Terriermon and MarineAngemon's cases, hanging and floating respectively—nearby.

"Wow," Terriermon said with a touch of sarcasm. "So you do have a brain in that thick skull of yours. Never thought I'd see the day."

Kazu scowled at the rabbit-dog digimon. "I bet if Rika were here she'd say that's because she thought she'd load your data before that day ever came."

"How would you know?" Terriermon shot back, folding his arms across his chest. "Rika would never admit that you _have_ a brain."

Henry could only shake his head while Kazu fought to come up with a retort but presently failed to do so. The pair had been sniping each other lately, though why he didn't know. "Terriermon…" he scolded, holding up a placating hand. "Look. We're going to need a plan of action now that everyone's been caught up." He looked over at Kenta and Jeri meaningfully. Jeri had been informed by Rika of Takato's situation and insisted on being here whereas Kenta had been out of town that night visiting his grandmother. "Kenta," he continued, "do you think MarineAngemon can help with Takato?"

The short, bespectacled boy looked over at his partner, a pink fairy digimon with wide green eyes, a pair of wings for arms, a set of larger wings behind him, and a large red heart on his chest.

"I don't know… What do you think buddy?"

"Puh!" The fairy digimon replied simply.

"He says it's worth a shot," the boy answered. "The thing is though, he's never tried healing a person before so he's not sure what'll happen."

"He's got a good point there, Henry," Terriermon piped in. "As much as I want to see Takato get better, don't you think it'd be a better idea let the doctors do their job? They _did_ say that he was going to be okay after all. Momentai."

"I know," Henry sighed again. "It's just…" He glanced at Jeri briefly, taking in her quiet, somber expression. "…It's just we don't know what we're dealing with. It'd be better if we were all together."

"Ah, I think ol' Chumley will be all right," Kazu added. "I mean, MarineAngemon is pretty harmless and I think I remember him fixing up Renamon and Rika when they were biomerged, so it should be good, right?"

"Yeah, but they were data then weren't they?" Kenta countered. "It's a little bit different now, isn't it?"

Kazu grunted noncommittally but didn't respond any further than that. After all, he wasn't entirely wrong.

"What about Rika?" Guardromon asked. "Or the girl who looked like Rika?"

Folding his arms over his chest, Kazu scowled. "How do we know that Rika was telling the truth when she said that she was home?"

"That's silly, Kazu!" Jeri snapped, losing a bit of her somber attitude. "That would mean Renamon was lying! Why would _either_ of them do that? Why would Rika attack Renamon?"

"How would Rika have powers like Sakuyamon without even being biomerged?" added Kenta. "I mean, it's weird but…we deal with weird all the time when it comes to the digital world. Maybe this is one of those weird things. Um…" Kenta scratched the side of his head a bit nervously. "The digital world has digimon that are almost the same as what we saw in the TV show. Maybe this is just like that? Maybe she's kind of like Gennai?"

Henry's eyes flitted over to Kenta, a bit surprised that the boy made that kind of connection. It was odd how many digimon were based off the TV show. True they shared the same starting point, but now that he thought about it, why wasn't there a divergent point after the actual digimon arrived in the digital world?

_The digital world was completely different from what we saw in the show after all,_ he thought. _Maybe this _is _the same thing. But…why?_

Not getting an answer to his unspoken question, he stood up.

"We're going to have to have another talk with Yamaki after school. Hopefully they'll have something more for us by then."

"Sooner if there's another attack," Terriermon muttered under his breath, earning him a sharp glare from his partner. Terriermon simply smiled. "Momentai!"

"You're just asking for trouble," Kazu said, rolling his eyes. "All right lug nuts," he continued, turning to Guardromon. "We're getting out of here. If we're not here right after school it means we made Mr. Iwamoto mad again."

"Oh dear…" Guardromon groaned. "Should I attempt to free you in that case?"

"Um…" began Kenta worriedly, adjusting his glasses. "Let's not unless it's an emergency, okay Kazu? You got a week's worth of detention the last time because Iwamoto thought Guardromon was going to blow up the school."

"All right… Fine, if it'll make you happy."

Henry, Terriermon and Jeri exchanged amused but worried glances. The new school year brought its own brand of trouble, and for Kazu, Kenta, and Takato, it was in the form of a new teacher. Where Ms. Asagi had been strict in her lessons, Iwamoto seemed determined to make life as difficult as possible for the Tamers in his class. Kazu frequently got into trouble with the man and, Takato, almost as often merely by simple association and desire to stand up for his friend. Things weren't as bad as they had been at the start of the school year, but the tension remained all the same.

_There's no way Takato's going to escape being punished for this,_ Henry thought. _Even though he has an excuse._

As the Tamers headed off, Henry turned to Jeri. Aside from her outburst at Kazu earlier, she had largely been quiet.

"So…um…how are you taking this?" he began, uncertain as to how to approach the girl. The events of the D-Reaper were months ago, but still fresh in everyone's minds. "About Takato I mean."

"Oh, just…peachy!" Jeri replied, forcing on a cheerful face that was not in the least bit convincing to even a casual observer. Terriermon's grimace from his spot on Henry's shoulder quickly caused her to drop the pretence. "Actually…" she began. "…I'm worried about him." She glanced at Henry furtively, a slight nervous twitch to her voice. "As…As a friend I mean!" Her gaze quickly jerked away, seeming to dart everywhere else, unable to meet either Henry or Terriermon's eyes. "I mean…I don't mean… I mean I'd be worried about him no matter what and not because…because…"

"We get it Jeri," Terriermon giggled, placing a tiny paw over his mouth gleefully. "You like Takato and you're worried. You can admit it now."

"Terriermon…" Henry groaned, palming his face in exasperation.

Jeri's face bloomed bright red and her fingers fumbled at the corners of her book bag. Ahead of them, Kazu turned a surprised expression toward them, having overheard the whole thing.

"Wha…? You like Takato, Jeri? Am I hearing things right?"

"Yeah, you did!" Terriermon crowed. "What? You didn't know? I thought it was obvious with the way these two were tripping over each other's words and blushing…"

"Huh." Kazu looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to Kenta. "I guess I was wrong about him and Rika then."

_"Kazu!"_ hissed Kenta, his eyes going wide as he looked over at Jeri in horror. The still-blushing girl blinked in surprise before picking up her pace to join her two wayward classmates.

"Takato and Rika? What are you talking about?" she asked with a frank curiosity that was completely misinterpreted by the two boys.

"Uh oh." Now it was Kazu's turn to blink, suddenly worried that he had riled up the lion-hearted girl. "I just did something bad didn't I?"

Kenta groaned while behind them Terriermon turned to Henry, still giggling.

"Well _that_ got her mind off Takato's problem…"

Henry could only heave a heavy sigh in response.

**###**

Suzie coughed as she lay in bed. Turning onto her side she snuggled into her blankets, a miserable look on her face. The door to her bedroom creaked open and her mother, Mayumi Wong, poked her head in, a concerned look on her face.

"Hey Suzie," she said, putting on a small, motherly smile. "How's my little princess doing?"

"Not good," Suzie replied in a pitiful voice. "My thwoat huwts again."

"How about I make some more tea and honey," Mayumi said sympathetically. "That helped earlier."

"Okay…" Suzie replied. She felt so tired. She wanted to sleep but even that felt too exhausting to try.

She was also bored.

Looking down at her floor where there lay books and toys strewn all over the place, her gaze fell upon the small sketch book that lay atop them, a box of crayons sitting next to it—a birthday present from Takato. Her thoughts turned to the story Henry started to tell last night but never finished.

"Lopmon?" she asked the grey bunny-digimon quietly reading in the chair near her bedroom window.

"Yes Suzie?" she asked, looking up.

"Could you help me get my sketchbook? I wanna dwaw…"

4


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 8

_This world was not safe either._

_ Nowhere that it went was there safety to be had. Strange creatures populated this city of stone and steel and glass, taking in and spitting out humans. A horseless carriage of some kind it believed, or some kind of homunculi, but regardless where there were humans there was no safe harbor; only death and destruction for as long as it and they existed. _

_ Were the Reaper capable of conceiving such a thing it would find this…ironic, for that was exactly what fed its growth. However, the humans weren't its primary reason for its concern; merely evidence that it _needed_ to be so._

_ The girl and the boy were here; its enemies. The ones who tried to kill it—especially the boy. They were different, as different as this world was from its place of origin, but not so much that it failed to recognize them through its scout. Their guardians were vastly different as well—a dragon and a bipedal fox of some kind._

_ It didn't understand, but the lack of information was irrelevant for now. It needed only to observe and gather information. Once it was ready it would come in open force and grow, as it did before with the Order of Hypnos. Then there would be peace._

_ Watch. Learn. Grow. To grow though, it would need a host again._

_ The city, laid bare, stretching in all directions, gave the Reaper its choice of targets._

**###**

The day stubbornly refused to end for Rika as she sat down at her desk and began to eat her lunch. Taking her cell phone out of her bag—newly bought courtesy of her mother—and flipped it open to check for messages. Nothing but the picture on its screen of herself, Henry, and Takato from their 'trip' to Okinawa from nearly a year ago greeted her.

"Well aren't they cute?" chirped a voice from behind her that Rika instantly recognized as belonging to one Kayoko Fujiwara, her fellow classmate. "So which one's your boyfriend?"

Rika sighed and closed her phone, returning it to her bag. Turning in her seat, while ignoring the light blush that blossomed on her cheeks, she turned an annoyed eye at Kayoko.

"What do you want?" she asked tersely, trying to keep her tone as even as possible for all the good it would do her. Hands on her hips, Kayoko gave her a smirk. Not for the first time did Rika feel as though she were looking into a cracked mirror. Despite being one year older and having midnight-black hair, Kayoko's dark eyes eerily resembled Rika's; not so much in color as it was the sharpness they had. For many of the girls at the Kagurazaka Girls Academy it only took one glare and they were silenced into submission, often leaving Rika with a sense of déjà vu.

On a daily basis she felt that she most resembled this girl during her early days as a Tamer.

_The stuck up attitude is about right,_ she thought, remembering the _pride_ she used to take in calling herself the _Digimon Queen_, a title that seemed so silly now.

"I was just asking which one of those two boys on your phone you were going out with?" Kayoko asked with a touch of sarcasm. "That is, if you haven't scared either of them off by now."

Rika merely looked back at Kayoko's gaze unflinchingly, unimpressed by her interrogation. She tapped her fingers on her desk, rapidly becoming bored.

_"That's_ none of your business," she emphasized. "Is this going somewhere, or can I get back to eating now?"

Kayoko chuckled a little. "I was just wondering if a freak like you had _any_ kind of life. But I guess not." Raising her hand she waved. "Later."

Rika watched Kayoko go for a moment before returning to her lunch. Her appetite had disappeared somewhat, but she forced herself to eat if only because she knew that if she didn't she would be in an even fouler mood later when she went to check up on Takato. The last thing she wanted was to be irritable toward a friend still in the hospital.

The buzzing of her cell phone caught her attention. Pulling it out she flipped it open once more to find a message from Yamaki. Opening it she quickly read its contents. A small smile graced her face as she saw that, yes, Takato was fine now and awake. They were expecting to discharge him this afternoon.

_Thank goodness,_ she thought, closing up her phone. _Hunting wild digimon wouldn't be the same without our Gogglehead. Now we can finally get to the bottom of this mess._

**###**

"I'm telling you there's something there," said a tall, crimson-haired woman—Riley Ootori—to Yamaki as her hands flew across her control panel. "I don't know why but our sensors are just now barely picking up a mild distortion of some kind."

Yamaki scowled as he looked up at the computer screens that lined the walls of Hypnos' control room, displaying a map of Shinjuku.

"Here, here, and here…" said another woman sitting behind Riley with shortly-cropped, copper hair—Tally Onodera. Points of red light lit up on the map. "These are the points where we're getting the strongest signals. Thirteen total, and four of them are stronger than the others."

"Weak points in the dimensional barriers?"

"They _do_ resemble early data from when the digital world was first discovered," Riley replied, cross-referencing the information with their archives. "But they seem to shift around a great deal. Whatever's going on, they're mobile."

"Enhance grid nine," Yamaki said. Riley did so and with that the screen expanded its dimensions to fill up several of its companions. Narrowing his eyes, Yamaki scanned across the map. "That's…Shinjuku hospital." _Where Takato's at._ "Display all known locations again and enhance grids eight and twelve."

Again it was done, and Yamaki felt himself go cold as dawning realization started to fall heavily on him.

_Kagurazaka Girls Academy… That's Rika Nonaka's school. And the other one… That's where the other Tamers all attend. Are…Are the Tamers somehow related to this? What could be going on?_

Before he could pursue that train of thought, an alarm sounded throughout the room.

"Report status!" Yamaki exclaimed angrily.

"Unknown Wild Type is bio-emerging!" Tally shook her head, unable to believe the readouts she was receiving. "The data… It's like _nothing_ I've ever seen before! I…I don't understand! I can't get anything on it!"

"Can we use Yuggoth?"

"We should be able to! I'm uploading it now!"

**###**

_The burning beast did not know how it came to be here in this world of white light with its strange landscape of angular green and gold. All it knew was that it wanted to get out. It raced the length of the bizarre ground, feeling metal and electricity beneath its feet. Above it was a small, blue and green sphere. Instinctively it jumped upward, striving to reach it…_

_ …only to be swiped down as a massive, bony claw slashed across its vision. _

_ Snarling, the burning lion surged to its feet and loosed a fearsome roar toward its opponent—an impossible creature of snarling skeletal bone with a gaping maw. It bellowed back in return and charged toward its prey. The burning beast dashed to the side, narrowly avoiding being crushed by its powerful feet. Undaunted, the skeletal-dragon slashed its tail after it in pursuit, striking it down with ease. The burning beast rolled with the blow, but felt something snap inside. Pain lanced through its body as it came to a stop. With a soft moan, it saw the skeletal dragon stalk toward it, a massive clawed hand eagerly moving to take its prize. The burning beast closed its eyes, awaiting the end…_

_ Had its eyes remained open, it would have seen the blazing three spheres of energy, chained together in a triangle, rushing toward the creature before striking it in its back, detonating the as-yet unseen fish-like missile that lined its spinal column. The creature—A SkullGreymon—howled as its munitions detonated, sending explosions throughout its body, shattering bones and causing its body to destabilize. The burning beast's body was rocked by the explosions and against its will it looked up just in time to see its opponent fall ungracefully to the ground, shards of sparkling data rising into the air. The beast was not down just yet however and it lurched toward the burning lion, instinctually striving to kill it before it died itself._

_ The blazing lion did not give it a chance. With a need greater and deeper than it ever knew before, it leapt at the SkullGreymon, rebounding off its bony forehead and into the air. A soft glow materialized around its body and powered by its need, the beast was carried all the way to the blue and green sphere…_

_ …and vanished._

**###**

"Too late!" Riley exclaimed. "Another Wild One intercepted Yuggoth and now it's starting to breach! I've locked on with Tracers! We'll be getting its coordinates in three…two…one…"

Yamaki flicked his lighter open and clenched his teeth as the information came up on the screen.

_Kagurazaka Girls Academy…_

**###**

The explosion from outside shattered the windows of Rika's classroom, eliciting screams and cries of surprise from her fellow classmates. Rika found herself thrown out of her chair by the force of the blast and she struck the floor hard enough to cause her to bite her tongue, drawing blood.

_Rika?!_ she heard Renamon's shock through their mental bond, having sensed the bio-emergence just a hairs-breath before it came. In her brief daze, Rika almost found herself unable to differentiate herself from Renamon, feeling her partners feet pounding upon a rooftop as she leapt into action. Shaking herself back to reality she pushed herself to her feet.

_Trouble…_ she thought, quickly assessing the situation. Grabbing her bag, she pulled out her digivice and card box, clipped to her belt, having decided some time ago to bring it with her rather than leave it at home. "Is everyone all right?" she called out, snapping her belt on. Around her she heard wild exclamations and weeping, none of which told her good news.

"Kiyoko's been hurt!" replied a brown-haired girl—Hana, Rika thought her name was—as she pulled up another girl with a bleeding forehead. Rika grimaced at the sight. She had been close to the windows right when the blast hit.

"What the heck is going on?!" shouted Kayoko from across the room. A loud roar broke across the air in answer. Her expression darkening, Rika quickly rushed over to the window to see what she could before Renamon arrived. Information was always vital to surviving a battle.

At first glance she thought that the digimon in question was a Lynxmon, a digimon she faced once before early in her Tamer career. Its fiery, quadruped form was easily recognizable, but the appearance of the holographic circle over her digivice and its proclamation of _No Data_ quickly abused her from that notion. When the beast looked up, revealing a dark-colored face beneath the twisting flames and glowing red eyes, locking with hers, all further thoughts that this was a digimon at all were gone.

_This must be another one of those…whatever they are. It's not what Renamon described, but it's still not a digimon. That's why I'm not getting any data._

"We've got to get out of here…" Rika began before another ear-splitting roar broke upon the air. Rika dropped her digivice as she covered her ears. The pain from its roar was _enormous._ It felt as though her head was going to split!

Cracking open an eye she saw the beast turn toward the school and charge. The building shook as it leapt upward, claws outstretched. Seeing this, Rika snatched up her digivice and dove away from the window just as the beast's claws smashed the remains of the windows, shattering the frames. Mighty claws tore into the room and dug for purchase, tearing floor tile and crushing desks. Looking over her shoulder as she landed, Rika saw that the beast's eyes were focused solely on her, following her as she moved. She could see clear hatred burning in its gaze and its claws scrambled to pull its massive form into the room. Not understanding why but seeing the opportunity it presented, she snatched up a desk and flung it at the creature, hitting it squarely in the left eye. The beast howled, nearly losing its balance. Below bricks crumbled as it clawed and slashed for a grip.

_"What are you all still doing here?!"_ she shouted to her paralyzed classmates. _"Get out of here! Get out of here _now!"

That seemed to snap them out of their frightened daze. Almost as one the girls raced toward the door at the end of the classroom. Grabbing another desk she readied herself, taking aim. At the very least it seemed that this creature was easier to hurt than digimon were, so she felt she had something of a chance. But if that burning fur was anything else but for show, then she was in trouble.

As if reading her mind, the fire that surrounded the monster increased in intensity and it opened its maw. Light glowed at the back of its throat and it threw a blazing fireball at Rika. Dropping the desk, Rika tried to duck out of the way, only to trip over an overturned chair and tumble to the floor. The fireball narrowly missed her, crashing into a nearby shelf and setting it ablaze. Cursing, Rika got to her feet and kicked the chair out of the way.

_I've got to keep its attention on me,_ she thought. _That…should be easy enough…as long as it doesn't burn me to death first._

The beast bellowed again and Rika collapsed to her knees, shockwaves smashing into her skull. The water sprinklers sprang to life now, striking the beast and the fires in the room. Intense steam rose up as part of the wall broke apart, allowing the lion full access to the room. It staggered in, its fires dying back a bit but remaining ablaze. Rika could see it glowing within the fog. She heard it sniffing, trying to pick up her scent. A pair of glowing red eyes lit up and fell upon her. Rika grabbed another desk and took a quick look around. Her classmates were gone now. No one else was left for her to be concerned about.

"Just you and me, huh?" she growled, hefting it with some effort and taking aim. She was surprised at how calm she felt in spite of the situation. "All right… Come and get me."

With a low, guttural growl, she _sensed_ the creature crouch before leaping at her. Rika flinched back before hurling the desk. It glanced off the side of the beast's head, not even slowing it down.

_Renamon…_ she thought, watching the monster soar toward her in almost slow motion. _I hope I made you proud…_

A bright light suddenly burst from her left and crashed into the animal full force, throwing it backward and destroying both teacher's desk and chalkboard in one blow. Spinning in bewilderment, Rika's jaw dropped as she saw an all-too familiar young boy step forward from off to her side, crimson cape flowing behind him and a sword and shield in his hands.

_"Takato?!"_ she exclaimed incredulously. _How…?_

Giving the girl a quick nod, the knight hefted his shield and took aim, golden energy swirling across its surface.

_"Final Elysian!"_ he shouted before a blast of white light burst forth from his shield.

5


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 9

A red crayon scribbled mercilessly over the picture of the lion, drawing jagged, knife-like lines around its body, giving it the appearance that it was ablaze. Suzie worked feverishly while in front of her Lopmon regarded her with some worry.

"Suzie?" the grey-colored rabbit-digimon began. "Don't you think you've colored enough? You really should get some rest."

"I'm not done yet," Suzie replied, shaking her head. "The pwincess still has to be saved by her knight!"

Lopmon's tiny paws threaded together in concern. The young girl looked so flush. She wondered if she should get Mayumi to take her temperature.

_Mrs. Wong said that fevers go down a little during the day,_ she tried to reassure herself, but she had the distinct feeling that was a dangerous line of thinking to pursue. "You should still get some rest," Lopmon insisted, getting up from her seat and hopping over to Suzie's bed.

"Ah! Lopmon!" exclaimed Suzie, suddenly gripping her drawing pad in a death grip. "You almost made me mess up the pictuwe!"

"Sorry Suzie…"

"It's okay!" Suzie chirped, switching emotions with that smoothness children often had. "I'm almost done with it! You wanna see?"

Lopmon nodded and Suzie spun the sketchpad around. The lion she watched Suzie work on. There really wasn't much to it; an angry scrawling of sticks with circles for a head and paws. Nonetheless the content was clear. The other one wasn't quite so clear though. It appeared to be stick with…a head of red? Lopmon tilted her head to one side. "Is that…Rika?"

"Yup! The pwincess from Henwy's stowy fwom last night!" Suzie bobbed her head up and down exuberantly. "She's fighting the evil monstew!"

_That story… It's been on her mind all day._ Lopmon shook her head and offered her partner a small smile. "It's very nice Suzie. I think Rika would like it."

"I still need to dwaw Takato." Suzie doubled over and suddenly began coughing. Fearfully, Lopmon rushed over to the girl's bed stand and snatched up the glass of water sitting on it with her hand-like ears, handing it over. Suzie accepted it gratefully and gulped it down.

"I'm okay now…" she mumbled, drawing the glass back and handing it over to Lopmon. "Thank you."

"Suzie?" came a knock at the door just before it clicked open. "Is everything all right?" Mayumi asked, poking her head inside. "I thought I heard you coughing."

"She was, Mrs. Wong," Lopmon said respectfully, bowing slightly. "She drank some water just now and that seems to be calming her down."

"Hmmm…" Pushing the door open all the way Mayumi entered the room and came over to Suzie's bed, placing a hand on the little girl's forehead. "You're pretty warm," she said, furrowing her brow a little in concern. "I'd better take your temperature." She cast her gaze down at the coloring books and then up at her daughter. "Suzie… You're supposed to be resting."

"I was bored…" Suzie moaned. Mayumi gave her a sympathetic look.

"I'm sorry honey, but rest is really the best medicine for you if you want to beat this bug. Remember, a Tamer always makes sure she gets a good night's rest before she fights bad digimon, right?"

"Yeah…" Suzie didn't sound convinced. So many of their battles often involved combat at night. Henry had more than his fair share of them, leaving him grouchy on occasion.

"And you want to get better as quick as you can, right?" Mayumi continued, rubbing the back of her daughter's head. Suzie nodded. Her mother was wearing down her resistance and she _did_ feel tired after all.

"Okay," Suzie agreed reluctantly, pulling at the covers. Mayumi smiled, glad that she wasn't going to be putting up much of a fuss.

"That's my little princess." Getting up, she helped tuck the girl in. Although she herself wasn't tired, Lopmon curled up next to her partner and settled down, draping an ear over Suzie's stomach. Giving the pair a light kiss on their foreheads, Mayumi collected the sketchbook and placed it on the nightstand. "I'll be in earshot if you need anything, okay?"

Suzie nodded and closed her eyes, drifting ever so slowly towards dreamland.

**###**

It all started when a dragon much like the one that attacked you appeared near my city, attacking people," began Rika, hefting her staff as she stood up. Takato raised a curious eyebrow at her, following her as she circled around the campfire.

"Isn't that normal for dragons?" he asked. "I mean, that's not unusual for them from what I've heard."

"The 'wild ones', yes, though it was…out of season for them. Something had disturbed them. Yes, 'them'. More dragons followed. And not just dragons. I'm sure you passed by the _Lynx_ you saw. Such things are uncommon, and they avoid human lands as a rule, preferring to stick to the mountains." She turned toward Takato with a scrutinizing gaze. "You had to pass over the mountains, right?"

"Yeah," Takato nodded. He didn't like to remember that experience. The cold almost made him turn back on more than one occasion. It was an oddity though, now that he thought about it. He always heard tales of the fires that occasionally lit up the mountains, warming them. He'd seen his father go on a trip through them once without any kind of winter clothing.

_How did I not think anything was strange about that?_ he wondered. Of course, a part of him already knew the answer, and he sensed that Rika's problems were related to that.

"After some weeks had passed," the fiery-haired girl continued, "an unknown creature arrived in my home city, destroying buildings and killing innocent people," Rika said,

"A creature?" He rubbed Guilmon's muzzle. "What did it look like?"

"It was man-shaped, but tall. It was armored in some kind of strange, green metal with a horn covering most of its face."

"Green armor?" Takato felt his blood run cold at the description. "And a horn?"

"Yes," Rika nodded, seeing recognition in his eyes. "You know it?"

Takato covered his eyes with one hand and shuddered. _To think that such a thing would come here… _"Were…"_ Oh gods… _"Were there any others? Is it still alive?"

"It was just the one," Rika replied, taking note of his reactions. "And the creature was killed. When I last was home it was being studied…"

Takato looked up at her in horror. "You _didn't_ destroy it?!" he exclaimed, surging to his feet.

Rika was taken aback by the sudden intensity in his voice. "Is everything all right?"

"You've got to take me to your city!" Takato said, getting Guilmon to his feet. "Oh gods I hope that we're not too late…"

**###**

_"Final Elysian!"_

White light burst forth from his shield and surged across the ruins of the classroom, smashing into the fiery beast as it struggled to get back to its feet. The lion roared with pain before its body exploded into a thousand sparkling shards. The light from Takato's shield died down, leaving only the sound of water pelting the pair as the brown-haired boy turned to face Rika, who was still staring at him incredulously.

"What…? How…?" she mouthed, trying to express her confusion as to the presence of her friend at her school and so deftly dealing with the monster without Guilmon. _That shield! That's Gallantmon's shield! How is he using it without biomerging? And…And why is he dressed like a…"_

"Are you all right?" Takato asked, worry in his crimson eyes. Realizing that she was soaked to the bone by the still firing fire sprinklers, he quickly sheathed his sword and swung off his crimson mantle, sweeping it around Rika before she could so much as protest. "Come on," he continued, raising his shield over them to create a makeshift umbrella. "Let's get out of here." Looking up he frowned at the ceiling. "Weird… I didn't think that a building could cause rain…"

The rather _Goggle-headed_ words snapped Rika out of her stupor and she nearly flung off the cape. A luminous blush lit up her face but she fought to ignore it.

"Hold it!" she snapped. "Just what are you _doing _here?! You're supposed to be at the hospital!"

"Uh…hospital?" Takato asked, tilting his head to one side in confusion. "What are you talking about? I'm fine."

In a seeming unending series of bafflement, Rika shook her head, trying to focus on _something_ with which she could use to make sense out of what was going on here. Takato obliterating an unknown monster without Guilmon by his side? "Did that dragon eat your brain when you fought it yesterday? You were _seriously_ out of it! And what's with that sword and shield? What's with that…that…_everything?"_ She looked at Takato in his crimson eyes, confusion etched on her face. "What happened to you?" she continued in a lower voice, her question directed more at herself than the boy.

"Um…" There was that familiar befuddled look that she knew all too well. The Tamer she knew was in there, but as yet nothing told her what changed him so drastically. "I don't get what you're talking about, but…why don't we get out of here and somewhere a little less…" He looked up once again as the sprinklers finally started to taper off. "…rainy…"

Takato lowered his shield, droplets of water falling to the floor. Outside the room Rika could hear the sounds of sirens and running feet. Against her will she started to shiver, but she resisted the urge to pull the cape closer around her.

_It's not Takato,_ she thought in realization, remembering what her partner said last night about a clone of herself appearing. _I don't get what's going on, but this…this can't be him. He's too…too…_

She wanted to say that he was _too heroic_, but that wasn't exactly fair given how often he threw himself into danger without a thought for his own safety, not to mention that he biomerged with Guilmon to _become a knight._ There was something else about him that went beyond the differences in how this Takato and the one she knew went about fighting. Something…

Her eyes widened slightly as she looked into his crimson eyes. For an instant she was reminded of that time in the digital world when Ryo first rescued her, Renamon, Kazu and Kenta from a Megadramon. He played the knight in shining armor then too, and he teased her about it ever since. Her face flushed again, causing Takato to quickly raise a hand to her forehead in concern.

"Are you all right? You feel like you're burning up."

Rika shook him off, fighting through her blush. _Why does this keep happening to me?_

"I'm _fine!_ Look, we need to get out of here before…"

It was just then that Renamon materialized into view in a combat stance. Quickly looking around she spied no sign of danger, save for a familiar brown-haired boy carrying a shield, and a red-draped Rika who looked _extremely_ flustered upon seeing her.

_"Renamon!"_ the girl called, brushing past the boy and rushing over to her partner, pulling the cape closer around her as she did so. The Takato behind her reached for his sword when he saw Renamon, but paused when seeing Rika run to her as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Um… I take it you two know each other?" he asked. Renamon raised an eyebrow as she relaxed.

"That's not Takato." It wasn't a question. Rika shook her head.

"Not unless you know how Gogglehead can beat you here all the way from the hospital and fight off some weird monster without Guilmon's help." Turning toward the boy, she decided to play along for now and introduce them. "Takato…this is Renamon, a very good friend of mine."

"Hi, I'm Takato," he said, approaching the pair and extending a hand in friendship. Rika bit down on her tongue to keep from snapping at him about how she already told Renamon his name.

"Honored," the vulpine digimon replied, accepting his hand and inclining her head slightly. She noted the difference in reactions between this version of Takato and the one of Rika that she encountered in the park. _No hostility. Just open acceptance. Very much like Takato…though a bit quicker about it. Interesting._ Turning toward Rika she nodded. "We should take him to Hypnos quickly so that we can try to resolve this."

"Hypnos?" Takato's eyebrows rose in surprise at this. "But…they're all the way in the north! It'll take forever to reach them!"

Rika had no idea what it was this copy of Takato was talking about, but she still chose to play along. Whatever it took to keep his cooperation and trust—and he seemed to trust her—the better. Reaching behind her she withdrew two cards from her pouch and her D-Arc.

"Not with these it won't," she smiled. _"Digi-modify! Digivolution activate!"_

Slashing through the first card—a digivolution card—light exploded from Renamon's form. Data peeled away from her body as it changed shape, her face elongating and her body becoming quadruped. Eight new tails sprang into existence to join their cousin and new data formed along the length of her body, crafting skin and fur to complete the transformation.

_"Renamon, digivolve tooo…Kyubimon!"_

Rika smirked seeing the astounded expression on this Takato's face. Climbing aboard she looked over her shoulder.

"Need a lift?" she asked, readying her speed upgrade card next.

4


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 10

Things did not go as planned.

Even the best laid plans never survive first contact with reality. Not that Rika had a plan when it came to Takato's clone. Still, she at least hoped to control the situation, keep her 'knight' calm so that Hypnos could work things out without any trouble. So she called Hypnos while on route and apprised them of the situation. They were waiting when they arrived which seemed to be a good start. Rika, still playing along, identified them as her 'servants' just to be safe and explained that she would tell him everything once he was settled. Then one of the agents mentioned that they would take 'Takato' into Hypnos' protective custody.

Things went a little haywire after that.

_I see it but I don't believe it… _Rika thought as the knight continued to struggle. In spite of (finally) being pinned, by Renamon no less and even she appeared to struggle a little to hold him, he just refused to give up. The Hypnos agents that hadn't been laid out on the ground like cheap lawn ornaments were now starting to move in, one of them removing a pair of cuffs from his suit. Renamon backed away just enough for the agents to snap them on and then retreated over to her partner as they hauled the youth up. The vulpine digimon kept a wary eye on the Takato. Even though he hadn't attempted to harm her, she still found him to be skilled opponent.

"His strength is different than what I expected," she confided to Rika.

"He's faster too," Rika added. As much as she hated to admit it, until Renamon took the Takato down, for a second it looked almost as though he were _dancing_ with the kitsune digimon in a kind of choreography. From her vantage point, the only reason the fight was short was because Takato seemed to remember who he was fighting—a friend of Rika's—and hesitated for the briefest of moments, giving her all the time she needed to end the battle.

_"Rika!"_ the Takato called out as he pulled against the agents that held him.

_For goodness sake, _two_ of them are having a hard time holding him and he's as scrawny as Takato!_ She saw the confusion and urgency in his eyes and she found herself grimacing in sympathy. This version of Takato was like a fish out of water. He had no idea what was going on and now even less of an idea where he was or how he got here. The sights and sounds around him were so different and strange.

"I'd better defuse this," Rika said, approaching the scene.

"Ms. Nonaka," began one of the agents, circling toward her. "I'm afraid for your safety you're going to have to keep your distance…"

"Stuff it," Rika cut in bluntly. "I just need a moment." She stopped in front of the boy and he stopped struggling, his crimson eyes locking with her violet ones.

"R-Rika…" he gasped, trying to catch his breath. That was comforting. It made him a bit more human. A bit more like the Takato she knew. "These guys… They're _not_ Hypnos…"

"I told you things were…_different_, right? And that I would explain things later." She chose her words carefully, knowing that whatever she said now was going to haunt her later. _There's too much that I don't know here…_

The Takato nodded reluctantly and Rika relaxed a little. That was a good sign. He was listening.

"You trust me, right?"

The Takato nodded again.

"Then trust me now. These guys are from Hypnos… Just not the one you know. Sorry I didn't make that clear. Either way, you need to trust them. They're on our side. They won't hurt you."

Takato stared into Rika's eyes for a moment before finally relaxing. The agents warily released their hold on him and backed off a half-step, ready to jump into action at the slightest hint of aggression.

Somehow Rika had the impression that, even handcuffed, this Takato was more than capable of taking them all out.

"All right," Takato said, taking a deep, calming breath. "I'll go with you."

"If you would come this way then…" began one of the agents with a bruise swelling on his face, taking hold of him by the arm and gesturing to the building behind them. Rika watched them go for a moment, still unable to believe what she had seen. It was amazing that none of the agents had been _killed_ during that fight. The look in his eyes when hell broke loose…

_He moves a bit like Renamon,_ she noted as the vulpine digimon approached her.

"I spoke briefly to Henry's father before the…_bio-emergance,"_ Renamon said. "While I can't say that I understand everything he said, he did state that Hypnos had been detecting some unusual…_discrepancies_ with their sensors."

"Kind of like what you were talking about last night, right?" Rika asked. She folded her arms across her chest. "This is really weird. Did they have any idea why copies of me and Takato are running around? Or if we can expect any of the _others _to show up?"

"Janyu said that he cannot be sure as there is much about the digital world that we don't know."

"Did he at least _guess?_ He's a nerd…er, _scientist_, right? He's got to have one."

Renamon tilted her head to one side thoughtfully before replying. "He…_suggested_ that it might have something to do with our visit to the digital world. If it's anything like a computer, a copy of our data may have been made, after which it mutated like digimon have and the D-Reaper did. There could very well be an entire species made up of you and your friends."

"Great," Rika grumbled. "As if _one_ Kazu wasn't bad enough. Or Ryo for that matter. This is going to be just great, I can tell that already." Sighing, she looked down at her clothes, still damp from the sprinklers. The red cape was still draped over her. She had nearly forgotten about that. "As much as I hate to leave that goofball right now, I need to get home and get changed before anything _else_ crazy happens." She looked over at Renamon, who nodded and took the girl into her arms. Taking one last look at the other version of Takato, they vanished into thin air.

**###**

Yamaki stood on the other side of the mirror-window, carefully taking in this 'second Takato'. He was presently sitting in a chair, carefully restrained so as to not hurt anyone, with a doctor and a group of technicians—of whom Janyu was among—hovering around him. The doctor was carefully drawing blood from the boy who, in spite of his apprehension, cooperated, a far cry from the fight he put up outside of Hypnos earlier. Yamaki had seen the footage and would again before this day was out.

_The way he handled all those agents…_ he thought, flicking his lighter open with a loud click. He was broken from his thoughts as Janyu opened the door and entered the room.

"Well, he's human," the man said. Yamaki raised an eyebrow.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I mean he's human in all the ways that matter. Except for the fact that he _is_ made of digital information, he appears to be as human as you or me. I'll need to go over the data to be sure, but so far he checks out."

"That doesn't explain Rika's story about his use of attacks." The battle with the agents seemed could be due to some kind of special training, but that part of this Takato's tale stretched credibility. Humans simply didn't have that ability.

"There is still a great deal about the digital world and digimon that we don't know," Janyu reminded him. "One of which is how they resemble a TV show so much. True it was based off the original AI program my friends and I developed, but the similarities pretty much end there." Janyu shrugged. "At this point I half-expect him to be like that Gennai character from the television series; a digimon, but not a digimon. So far we seem to be on the right path."

"I wasn't aware that your research also included a children's fantasy program," said Yamaki, flicking his lighter closed and then open again.

"Dolphin and Shibumi started looking into it a few months ago during their off hours. They believe that since there is a connection between digimon and how they interact with children like the Tamers there may be a relationship with the show as well. The introduction of Shibumi's code into the digital world may be connected but it's hard to say. Frankly I have a hard time following it but the ideas are interesting."

"Do they have anything concrete?"

"Nothing as yet."

Yamaki flicked his lighter closed with a metallic click. "Shibumi's code… We've seen it create consciousness before… According to reports, the Arc became conscious simply because Takato and his partner spoke to it."

Janyu nodded. "There are some ideas involving the Anthropic Principle behind Shibumi and Dolphin's thinking. If that's the case, it could mean that _anything_ composed of digital matter exposed to Shibumi's code could generate life simply by acknowledging it or imagining it as so. The human imagination could be akin to the chemical 'spark' that caused biological life to emerge."

Yamaki frowned. "Which opens up new doors of possibilities… New dangers. The digital versions of Rika and now Takato may be the start of something new."

"Well, yes," acknowledged Janyu. "But does that mean that it is actually dangerous? Not all digimon are so and we benefit from them."

Yamaki folded his arms over his chest. "They're an unknown, which can mean a great deal of things, including danger. Are you aware that the official United States policy regarding contact with extra-terrestrial life was that if such a civilization sent a message to us that humanity should not respond?"

"I…" Janyu blinked. "No. I can't say that I was aware."

"The policy wasn't made out of paranoia, but rather a healthy caution. We need to exercise caution here. You and I both know well that once Pandora's Box is opened there is no closing it. Here the lid has been cracked. I was ignorant before when the digital world first appeared on our sensors. I don't intend to make the same mistakes this time. Not when the price for not being careful is the world." He turned to look at Janyu more fully. "I asked you once if you were willing to risk your son's life for the sake of artificial intelligence. Knowing what you do now, what would your answer be?"

The door clicked open and the doctor exited, carrying a cooler. The man nodded to them and said he was heading down to the lab for analysis of the blood sample.

"I would still think that it's such a waste," Janyu replied as soon as they were alone again. Yamaki nodded and returned his attention to the other Takato.

"I never said that it wouldn't be, Janyu."

**###**

_A small red pellet struck the ground by the playground. It watched it roll for a moment before it buried itself into the ground. The Bird-Reaper continued on. Although a specific target to serve as its new host would be ideal, there was something to be said for the 'spray and pray' method. As long as it left fragments of itself where a potential host could stumble upon it, its survival and growth would be assured._

_ This city was full of virile, potential hosts that it could utilize, but if given the preference it was looking for a particular type of host—a taste. It could sense one close by now as a matter of fact—one that was eerily _familiar_—just as it sensed others near the school of the fire-haired girl, but the presence of that girl and her fox served as a detriment to further exploration. Not that it mattered. It had everything it needed, and plenty to choose from. Now approaching its current target, it would soon be complete._

_ It flew toward Shinjuku Elementary, already starting to prepare its body for the transformation. Soon, it would be complete, and then there would come a reckoning._

_ Although it didn't need to, it flapped its wings to urge more speed out of them to hasten its journey._

4


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 11

Calumon floated through the iar on his wing-like ears, going back and forth between humming quietly to himself and giggling childishly. For the moment he was pursuing a news helicopter as it followed the pattern of traffic, its blades making a _"Whup! Whup! Whup!"_ sound. Just listening to it caused Calumon to erupt in another round of giggles.

"You're so silly Mr. Copter!" Calumon laughed. The helicopter of course didn't respond, continuing on listlessly. Calumon tilted his head to one side and he tapped a paw against his mouth, looking somewhat saddened by this silence. "You still don't want to talk, do you? Okay…"

Shaking his head, the diminutive white digimon floated away. This had been the pattern for as long as he had been in the human world. Jeri tried to explain to him once that the helicopter could not possibly talk to him or play games of tag (no matter how often he tried to do so). Neither could the cars of course but that seemed silly no matter how he looked at it.

_Grani became a real digimon,_ he thought. _All he needed was a little persuasion from Guilmon. What am I doing wrong?_

Such questions would go unanswered for the creampuff-shaped digimon, and he decided to retreat somewhere a little more familiar. Somewhere where he didn't have to deal with silly questions.

The playground served as the Tamers secondary meeting place whenever they needed somewhere close by to meet up or when they were off to school (the latter being absent of Rika due to her attendance at a different school), but while the time wasn't quite right for them to be out—Calumon thought, as he still hadn't yet learned how to tell time except through the positioning of the sun—that didn't mean that he couldn't go there and find someone else to play with. Sure enough, as he neared the playground, he sighted some children and parents in the area. Calumon cried out in glee and sped down, landing and retracting his ear-wings.

"Hi!" he greeted, his big, green eyes swiveling around. Heads turned in his direction and he waved. "I'm Calumon! Does anyone want to play?"

At first some children started toward him with big, wide smiles on their faces, but this quickly ended when parents rushed forward and snatched them up by the hand, dragging them away.

"It's a digimon!" shouted one of them. Calumon's face fell at that.

"Hey! I'm a good digimon! I don't blow stuff up! I… Come back!" Calumon hopped after the humans as they rushed off, leaving him to look down at the ground with sorrowfully. "I just want to play…"

It looked like today was going to be a boring day. Turning around he started plodding along in the direction of the swing sets.

"Awww… Whatsa matter creampuff? Someone beat you up and take your lunch money?"

Pausing, Calumon looked up in search of the familiar voice and quickly found it in the form of a slightly taller, dark-colored digimon with a pale face, red bandanna and gloves, and an evil-looking smiley face imprinted on his belly.

"Impmon!" Calumon cried out, quickly bouncing over to him. "Yay! Yay! Yay! _Yaaay!"_

"Take it easy the—_oof!"_ Impmon grunted as Calumon bowled him over and clambered on top of his head. Sitting up, Impmon scowled at him.

"Hey! Get offa me! Do I look like Terriermon's partner to you?"

"Oh Impmon, he's just happy to see a friend…" came another voice followed by a pair of giggling. Looking around Calumon found Impmon's partners, a girl named Ai and her brother Mako, as they appeared from behind the slide.

"Oh! You brought friends!"

"Yeah." Impmon got to his feet and hoisted Calumon down. "They got let out of school a little early today, so I figured I'd take 'em out and run 'em around. So what're you doin'? Besides moping and making me depressed lookin' at you I mean."

"Not much else except that I'm happy to see you guys. Everyone is at school so I've got nothing else to do." A light bulb seemed to turn on in his head and Calumon tapped a paw against his chin. "Oh! Maybe I should go to school too! I hear they have a class on having fun. I'll bet I'll pass _every_ test they have!"

"That's called recess," said Ai as she and her brother approached the pair. "It's not a class. It's just a break."

"Oh…"

Impmon snickered. "Maybe you should go to school anyway so you can learn yourself a little somethin' called 'common sense'…"

"Impmon!" exclaimed Calumon. Impmon snickered again.

"I'm just teasin' ya. Sheesh! The way you react it's like you was thinkin' I wanted to load your data or somethin'." Impmon scowled a little and scratched the side of his face. "Anyway, it looks like we've got the park to ourselves now and since it looks like I'm babysitting you too…uh…" He looked over all three. "Who wants to play a game?"

"I do!" shouted Mako, pumping his fist into the air. "I want to play 'Tamers'! I'll be the evil digimon this time and I'll be chasing…uh…" He looked down at Calumon. "Calumon, right?"

"Uh-huh!" Calumon giggled.

"So Ai and me are going to rescue ol' creampuff?" Impmon folded his arms over his chest. "I dunno. I'm pretty sure he can hold up on his own pretty well. The D-Reaper couldn't get rid of him. If I had to choose between Calumon and a rampaging digimon—or a rampaging Mako—I'd pick Calumon any day of the week."

Mako looked at Impmon with a hurt face, causing Ai to give their partner a hard look. Impmon rolled his eyes under their gaze.

"All right. If Calumon wants…"

"I do! I do! I do, I _dooo!"_

"Fine. Mako. Go terrorize him. Calumon, be terrorized. Ai and I will do the dashing hero act." He grinned up at Ai. "Make me look good. The whole world's countin' on ya!"

And so the game went as Calumon took off at a run with Mako chasing after him, arms outstretched and making childish, roaring noises, stomping with his feet as he went. Impmon watched them go, counting to ten to give them time to really get into the game.

He didn't make it to five when Mako suddenly stopped in mid stride and looked down at the ground. Cocking an eyebrow Impmon called out, "You find somethin' buddy?"

"There's something glowing underneath the…" Mako began before the dirt suddenly erupted in a stream of crimson.

**###**

Takato slid his familiar blue hoodie over his head and brushed himself off. He looked at the bandage that wrapped around his arm where he had been injured in his fight from last night. He had been 'debriefed' by one of Yamaki's agents.

_A dragon-digimon?_ He shook his head. That wasn't exactly right from what little he had been told. The agent had given him a cliff-notes version of Hypnos' information—half of which was presently classified—leaving him with more questions than answers.

_It's got to be from the digital world. I mean, where _else_ could it have come from? I know how in the TV show Gennai said there were many other worlds but so far we've only seen two._ A small smile spread across his face as he took up his goggles and slid them over his head. _Though now that I think of it, if there's a world out there with another Rika whose a wizard that would be kind of cool. That would be something, if there were so many worlds out there that the TV show really was real…_

He chuckled. _Oookay, I think someone needs to lay off the TV for a while. I can't wait to see how Guilmon is doing. He's supposed to be all right…besides being hungry that is. Man, he is such a bottomless pit._ He had been disappointed to learn that the hospital discharged Guilmon out of fear of what his digital makeup could do to their equipment, but as Hypnos had been able to quickly take him in and had the necessary facilities he decided that it had been for the best. Digimon were far from being human and he knew from experience that bio-emergences had the tendency to scramble technology.

His clothes on, he picked up his D-Arc out of the box that earlier held his belongings…and nearly dropped it as a surge of electricity tore loose from the device. Takato cried out in surprise as the lightning arced in front of him and formed a humanoid shape. Features formed quickly, taking on the familiar violet eyes and red hair that Takato immediately recognized as belonging to Rika, only the similarities in her face ended there. Her hair was down and her clothes looked outlandish! Long purple gloves with black fingertips holding a bronze vajra staff and a sleek black sash over what appeared to be a silk dress of violet and gold over a kimono.

_It's like she's out of some fairy tale,_ Takato thought, immediately recalling the agent's report about another Rika who appeared at the battle site, deciding that this had to be her. He backed up as the girl solidified and looked around her, taking in her surroundings before finally settling on him, eyes narrowing. _And there's the Matsuki luck. She looks mad…_

"What's going on?" she asked in a calm tone that surprised him. She didn't sound mad. Annoyed, but mostly curious.

_Does she look like she's glad to see me?_ he wondered, noticing a softening in her gaze as she looked him over.

"Takato…" she began, her eyes settling upon his bandaged arm.

The boy pointed at himself with raised eyebrows. "You know me?"

She took his arm and looked at him quizzically. "Of course I know you. We've been together for…" She hesitated, pressing her lips together as she scrutinized him more closely. "Did that demon fox do something to your memory? She cast a spell and I…"

Again she hesitated. Takato was in the middle of puzzling out her words when suddenly she swept him up into her arms, pulling him into a powerful hug. Takato went rigid, not at all sure how he was supposed to react. He could feel heat flushing his face as her hand brush against the back of his head, running her fingers through his hair and caressing it affectionately.

_Wha…Wha…Whaaa…? What is going on here? Does she…? No! That's crazy! She's just happy to see me…or whatever me she's expecting. She… Hold on! Did she say "we've been together"?_

As his brain lost itself in the storm of his thoughts, the duplicate of Rika pulled away, a hard look on her face. "I promise you," she began, "that if that demon fox was in _any_ way connected to what's going on with you…"

"Demon fox?" Takato looked at her baffled, but quickly seized upon the words, finding _something_ that was more readily understandable. "You mean Renamon?"

Upon seeing that she didn't understand what he was talking about, he, with great care, separated himself from her. "Um…looks like a fox with purple arm guards? Bright yellow?"

"Yes," 'Rika' nodded. "She did something to me… Sent me away and now I'm back…with you…and you don't remember that we…" She blushed lightly but kept her gaze on him. Stepping forward she thrust her face at his, her expression becoming angry as she took hold of him by the shoulder with one hand. "You've _got_ to remember! It can't be gone! Not all of it!"

"Um…" Takato raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Hang on. I _do_ know who you are. You're Rika. Rika Nonaka and…" He swallowed, feeling as though he was standing precariously on a ledge. Seeing 'Rika's' eyes relax upon his confirmation of knowing her name did nothing to ease his own anxieties. "…this is going to take a _lot_ of explanating…"

Rika opened her mouth to say something, but just then her eyes glowed blue and her head snapped over in the direction of the window.

"No…" she breathed. "It's here."

"Huh?" Takato looked over his shoulder, finding nothing. "Uh… _What's_ here."

"The Chaos." The word sent a chill down Takato's spine. Rika slashed a hand to one side, causing Takato to jump in surprise as the window bent inward and shattered. "We need to go. We have to destroy it before it gets a chance to spread and grow!"

Takato didn't know what was going on but the Tamer in him recognized the deadly seriousness in her voice. And that word…_ The Chaos…_ He couldn't ignore that.

"I'm going to need Guil…"

"We don't have the time to get your horse!" 'Rika' interrupted, grabbing the boy by the waist. Blue light surrounded her body and with her charge she jumped out into the open air above Shinjuku's streets.

4


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 12

"It's going to take too long on foot, even if we rode your horse," Rika said, grabbing hold of the knight's shoulder before he could begin climbing atop his mount. "I have another way, but before I go expending my magic on this, I _need_ to know what we're getting into."

Takato's red eyes met her violet ones before he glanced away, looking in the direction of the forest. "I thought I saw it earlier… Right before the dragon attacked. I almost forgot about it. A bird that's not quite a bird." He returned his gaze back to her questioningly. "You didn't see anything like that, did you?"

"A bird that's not a bird…" Rika's eyebrows narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Black eyes, round like coins and a disk around its tail. Wings too, but they're shaped…weird. The feathers are boxy, and they have golden eyes on them."

"I haven't seen anything like that," she replied. Her shadow quivered below her. _Neither has she…_

"Did you find any red spheres? This one is really important!"

At that, Rika blinked. Reaching to her belt, she withdrew the small, shielded ball from her pouch. No sooner did she do so that the object was abruptly struck from her hand, bouncing as it hit the ground. Growling angrily, her shadow erupted from beneath her feet and smashed Takato in the chest, throwing him backward. He struck the dirt heavily and he grunted in surprise.

"Wait!" he rasped, trying to rally himself. "I…" As he began to sit up he saw the pointed end of the girl's staff aimed directly at his right eye. Rika glared at him heavily, eyes dark and thunderous. "I didn't mean," he resumed, holding up his hands in a placating gesture, "to hurt you or anything. It's just…" he pointed in the direction that the sphere fell, "…that thing… It's dangerous. I've seen what it can do to someone who doesn't know anything about it." Takato's expression darkened as a memory flitted across his mind of a brown-haired girl. "Believe me… I don't _ever_ want to see that happen to someone again."

Rika held his gaze for a moment longer. Seeing the shadow in it she retracted her staff and held out her hand, the one Takato had struck. Upon his accepting it, Rika helped him back to his feet. Quickly locating the sphere, Takato approached it warily.

"They're called Reapers," he said, circling it. "This is a seedling. All Reapers can make them, but usually only one will, like a Queen Bee. If one isn't available though the others will start spreading new ones, trying to make a new colony, or something like that." Crouching, he gazed at the red orb. "The one I saw was a scout. That's all they were used for. The one you said attacked your city? We called them 'Horn Strikers'. They're extremely tough. A soldier class. They're built to take a beating and dish it out. Hypnos doesn't know where they came from, but what we _do_ know is that the best way to deal with them is to burn them out…down to the last root."

Drawing a knife from his boot, electricity sparked along its blade, causing Rika's eyebrows to rise in surprise. Taking no notice, he drove the blade down onto the seed, piercing it and causing it to blacken before vanishing into dust and ash. He looked back up at Rika as the current died down. Sheathing it he stood and dusted himself off.

"Seeds can infect people, making them just like Reapers. You might never know it until they're ready to reveal themselves. They're good at hiding."

"What are you getting at?" Rika asked, although she was already guessing what the knight meant.

"What I mean is that there's a good chance that people in your city have been turned into Reapers, and even now are infecting others. We need to get there as soon as possible!"

**###**

_"Mako!"_ shouted Impmon, rushing forward as the light of digivolution enveloped his body, causing it to grow and change. A black, beak-like mask formed over his face as it became pale and more human-like. A black-leather jacket, jeans, and spiked, steel-toed boots materialized around his body along with a pair of berenjena shotguns—one strapped to a leg and the other over his shoulder. His black tail lengthened and became more rat-like in appearance. His digivolution finished, Impmon, now Beelzemon, tore into the dust cloud.

"Mako! Where are you! Talk to…_ Aaagh!"_ The Demon-digimon was abruptly cut off as something stabbed into his side. Pain lanced through him but he held steady, gritting through it. Reaching down he found the source, something _familiar_ that set every one of his senses on fire. Just touching it caused his data to squirm in revulsion and he felt his stomach heave in response.

It became the easiest thing in the world to tear whatever it was loose.

Falling back while breathing heavily, Beelzemon took only a second to look over what attacked him—a crimson cable, though oddly with thorns lining it—before quickly throwing it to the side. Drawing a shotgun he took a single shot at it, shattering it into thousands of shining shards. He didn't know why, but instinct told him to destroy it.

Its owner let out an inhuman shriek, clearly not happy with what took place. Beelzemon didn't care. There was only one thing that at the top of his list of priorities right now, and it did _not_ include an angry invader from another dimension.

_"Where's Mako?!"_ he demanded as the dust finally started to settle. A shadow moved from within. A disturbingly _large _shadow. _"Where is he?!"_

"Impmon!" Ai shouted behind him, raising a purple-ringed digivice in her hand. "I'm ready to help! Just tell me what to do!"

"What I need for you to do is get outta here!" Beelzemon snapped. "This don't look like it's going to…"

The interruptions did not look as though they were going to end anytime soon as the shadow from within the smoke lunged forward, sending numerous, thorned tentacles stabbing and groping at Beelzemon's direction. The Demon-Lord digimon slashed with his clawed hands, ripping the tentacles apart with razor-thin streams of energy. The creature shrieked again and backed away, this time coming into view as the last remnants of the dust cloud settled.

Beelzemon felt his jaw drop at the creature before him. Memories of the D-Reaper came unbidden to his mind. He never saw the D-Reapers final form. At least, not directly. He had been out of the action due to injuries sustained in battle, but he saw the photos. An armless cloak of red and violet with a gold mask and a single-eye at the center. This creature, although vastly smaller (the D-Reaper itself had enveloped an entire city and made it a part of its body) bore a striking resemblance to the evolved program.

"What…is going on here?" he asked aloud, his eyes trailing over its body until it settled on Mako and Calumon, both lying on the ground a short distance off. Mako was starting to stir, making groggy noises and shaking his head.

_Oh please don't notice him…_ Beelzemon thought, taking aim with his shotgun. Fortunately for him this…_Reaper_ only had an eye for him. Its tentacles reached forth, testing the distance between them while shifting its spot on the playground. It was making a low, insect-like, chittering noise. Beelzemon ground his teeth together. The creature had positioned itself in front of Mako and Calumon. He didn't dare shoot for fear of hitting them.

"Fine," he growled, holstering his shotgun and flexing his claws. "If that's how you want things, that's how they're going to be. Let's get this over with. _Darkness Claw!_"

Letting loose a powerful battle cry, Beelzemon charged forward, slashed at the Reaper with his claws, slicing through the first round of tentacles that attempted to entrap him before slamming directly into the creature's body. Its appendages were quick to rap around him though and with an immense strength that belied its appearance, began to force him back. Beelzemon struggled, but his arms were restrained, and the creature even now was taking hold of his legs.

_This…may not have been the best idea in the world…_

With an animalistic roar the Reaper-form began to split apart down the middle of its body, revealing a gaping maw of cables that surged out, each one shining as they revealed metal syringes at their tips. Beelzemon howled as each and every one found their marks, digging deep and twisting. A crimson light filled his eyes as they began to both drain a black fluid from his body and pump another of bloody red in its place. Beelzemon thrashed as his entire body revolted, every muscle and fiber of his being screaming out for release, but he found his strength vanishing rapidly. The cables refused to budge so much as an inch.

It was just then that an azure fire ripped through the cables, severing them and sending streams of black and red fluids flying through the air, staining the ground below and Beelzemon as he collapsed. Shrieking, the Reaper-entity fell back, retracting its tentacles back into its body and swiveling its head around for the source of its attacker. It found it in the form of a fiery-haired girl, holding one violet-gloved hand before her, blue fire dancing along her fingertips, and a dark expression on her face. Next to her stood a completely horrified and flummoxed boy with a pair of goggles on his face.

"Beelzemon!" Takato shouted. He started to break into a run, but 'Rika' grabbed hold of him by the arm and held firm.

"No! Don't go to—!"

'Rika' didn't get a chance to finish as the Reaper-entity suddenly lashed out at her with a thorn-covered tentacle, cracking it like a whip. It smacked across her face, causing her to stagger as blood flowed from her cheek. If her eyes hadn't been angry before, they were positively storm clouds now. Her shadow surged forth, slashing with an 'arm' that cut across the Reaper's abdomen, causing it to howl and nearly fall to the ground.

"Are you all right?" Takato asked. Now it was his turn to take her by the arm as he tried to inspect her injury.

"Not now," she replied coldly as her shadow withdrew back to her. "I need a second to power up. Can you hold it off?"

"Huh?" Takato blinked. "But…I don't have Guil… Never mind. I…" Takato shook his head and looked at the Reaper as it reformed over its injuries and righted itself. _Oh man… I have no idea what I'm going to do here. I'm useless without Guilmon! But I can't just do _nothing!

"You only need a second, right?" Takato asked, licking his lips carefully. "I…I'm pretty sure that I can manage that." _Though I'll probably get killed trying…_

He tightened his grip on his digivice and withdrew a card from his pocket. He had never tried using the modify cards without Guilmon. He had no idea what would happen. Previous experience told him that any items created by modify cards would form around the digimon it was used on.

Adjusting his stance, he raised his arms, preparing to slide the card through the slot. 'Rika' eyed him with a quizzical expression.

Suppose though that, as with the Blue Cards, if all he needed to do was _believe,_ that would be enough to change that?

_"Fox Tail Inferno!"_

Takato didn't get a chance to find out as a flurry of fireballs struck the Reaper, setting it alight and causing it to scream in pain. His head whipping about, he spied the real Rika Nonaka, hair up in her traditional ponytail and in her normal day clothes, the sun to her back, sitting on the back of the nine-tailed digivolved form of Renamon, Kyubimon. Behind Takato, the other Rika's eyes widened in surprise at seeing 'herself'.

"Rika!" Takato exclaimed, a smile breaking across his face. Smirking, Rika cocked her head to one side and placed a hand on her hip.

"Figures. I leave you alone for a day and the first thing you do is get into trouble without me. You're going to have to make this one up to me, Gogglehead."

Beating down the blue flames, the Reaper turned a baleful glare at the girl and her fox. Tendrils whipped about angrily and took aim at the flame-haired girl. Raising her blue-trimmed digivice, Rika pronounced the words that would spell the creature's doom.

_"Biomerge activate!"_

4


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 13

Takato heard Guilmon whicker next to him as he stamped his feet nervously. The knight couldn't blame him. The horse was not used to having the ground not directly beneath his hooves. As such, it was proving to be the utmost test of his courage to not panic.

"Easy there, boy," Takato said, running a soothing hand through the horse's main. He could feel scales growing beneath them, a fine, rusty color that gleamed in the sunlight. Guilmon had never been the kind of horse to win prizes, even with his unique coat but this… Takato wasn't sure if he would get used to his new appearance.

_I'd rather that he be alive and looking like this than dead,_ he thought. _Not that he doesn't look bad this way. In fact, I'd say he looks great! That girl…_ He cast a look over his shoulder at the red-haired sorceress, her violet eyes narrowed in concentration. This 'Rika' was certainly something else with a grace and power that he hadn't seen since…

A flash of amber eyes and brown hair caused Takato's lips to draw up into a grimace and he quickly looked away, feeling both sorrow and shame. Looking down, he lost himself in the rush of trees. They were traveling in an orb of magical energy of sorts, invisible but as solid to the touch as Guilmon.

"This…" Takato paused to clear his throat before continuing. "This is amazing."

"Hm," Rika simply returned, her fingers flexing on her staff.

"I mean it," Takato insisted. "No one at Hypnos could do this sort of thing. I mean, yeah, we had our wizards and everything, but not a single one of them could do this. If we could do this, the war would have…"

"Could you please _not_ distract me?" Rika said irritably.

"Oh, sorry."

"We're going to be at the city soon," she said, shifting her grip on her staff. She pressed her lips together for a moment before continuing. "If things are as bad as you say, we should probably land outside the walls to scope out the situation."

"Huh? Already?" He looked down at the blur of trees. They _were_ going fast, but he certainly hadn't expected them to be moving quite that quickly. _How close was I to reaching civilization?_

"Yes," Rika continued, "now keep quiet. This is…a tricky spell to work with when there's more than one person involved." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Make sure your donkey stays under control."

"Hey!" Takato exclaimed, indignant. "Guilmon is _not_ a donkey! Big difference! _Big _difference!"

"Whatever," Rika shrugged. "Just make sure he doesn't go wild or anything. I need silence."

Takato scowled but managed to stay calm as he patted Guilmon down. That was a side of her personality he decided he didn't like._ What's her deal?_ he wondered. It seemed rather uncalled for to insult his horse like that. Turning his attention back to the forest below, he lost himself in the sea of green, thinking back on home no matter how much he wished he wouldn't.

Soon enough, as the great walls of a city approached, Rika dropped them all down into the forest and came to a soft landing. The touch of their invisible sphere vanished, leaving the trio suspended in the air for a fraction of a second before they touched down.

"That was…interesting," Takato said with a smile as Rika breathed a sigh of relief. "You did great."

Rika raised an eyebrow at him before hefting her staff and brushing by him. The knight's smile dropped. He and Guilmon exchanged looks before following her.

_I hope that there isn't any trouble in her city,_ he thought. _What the Reapers did back home was bad enough._ His fingers drew together into a tight fist. _I'll never forgive myself if I allowed even _one_ speck of that monster to survive. I was sure… So sure…_

He felt Guilmon's nose nudge against his face as if to say that it wasn't his fault. Takato grunted and patted him back, but refused to let his dark mood drop. His imagination was already awhirl with possibilities. If there was a Reaper Tower there; a Mother, then the best option for them was to retreat back to Hypnos and get backup. If there was little else though—say a smattering of drones as they attempted to establish their hive—then containing the situation would be simple.

At least, he hoped it would be.

_Might as well prepare for the worst case scenario. Reapers spread fast._ Reaching down, he touched the hilt of his sword. Lightning leaped from a fingertip and snaked down the handle. Shaking his hand, Takato took hold of Guilmon's reigns and turned to Rika, furrowing his brow a little as she shook her head to steady herself.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm _fine_," she replied, shooting him a dark look. "Let's keep going."

As she spoke, her shadow rose up and took shape, becoming almost humanoid in appearance with long ears and a predatory tail. Rika simply nodded to it and just like that it was gone. Takato stared at where it had been with wide eyes.

"What…is that thing?" he asked after a moment. Rika smirked.

"Our scout and my protection," she replied.

"I kind of got that when it attacked me earlier. I mean, _what_ is it? I've never seen anything like that before."

"You've never seen your own shadow before?"

"Very funny," Takato huffed. "You're avoiding the question, aren't you?"

Rika's eyes flashed as she turned to look at him. "You have your 'visions' or whatever it is that made you appear right in front of me while you were asleep. This is _my_ power. My first one. That's all there is to her."

"Her?"

Takato saw a ripple off to the side just as Rika raised an arm, and her shadow returned to her. The shaman closed her eyes as they darkened.

"The outer walls seem to be fine," she said. "There are citizens entering and leaving."

"There's…no trouble?" Takato placed a hand over his chin, scratching it in confusion. "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was only seeing things."

"I wouldn't count on you just 'seeing things' if you have visions," Rika said, reopening her eyes to reveal their normal, purple irises. "We'd better head inside and make sure things are more than what they appear to be." She then added, almost as an afterthought, "You might want to be careful about what you say and do. We'll be…dealing with royals. They may not take kindly to a foreigner, especially one like you."

"I'll keep it in mind," Takato nodded.

**###**

Impmon's body had just finished collapsing back down into his Rookie form as a slash of violet energy cut apart the tentacles that held him bound. A purple-gloved hand caught him and pulled him close to a jet-black body suit covered in golden armor. He didn't need to know who it was that pulled him out of the fire this time.

"Hey Fox-face," he wheezed, trying to grin and failing as he fell into a coughing fit.

"Hang in there Impmon," Sakuyamon said, slicing her staff through the air and sending streams of crystal shards flying through the air, cutting apart the Reaper-like entity as it attempted to capture her. Not one of them could even come close and the Reaper fell back, screeching in pain as red fluid poured from its injuries. Unable to protect itself, it all but collapsed into a bleeding heap.

_"Let's finish this thing!"_ Rika shouted from within her azure sphere of light. _"Amethyst Mandala!" _

Striking the ground with her staff, a spherical barrier formed around her that immediately began to spread outward. It engulfed the Reaper, destroying its body and dissolving it into shining particles. Breathing a sigh of relief she looked down at Impmon, shifting her grip on him so as to more carefully hold him.

"Are you all right?" she asked. Impmon coughed but gave her a thumbs up.

"I've felt better. Dis is like déjà vu all over again."

"We'll get you fixed up as soon as we get a hold of Kenta and MarineAngemon," Sakuyamon promised, her mouth becoming a bit hard. "Is everyone else okay?" She cast her gaze about, settling on Ai, Takato, and the other version of herself, who was watching her with wide eyes. "Takato?"

"Oh, we're fine," the goggle-wearing boy said. "But…um…" He glanced at Ai and a thought occurred to him. "Ai? Where's…"

"Mako and Calumon are hurt!" the little girl shouted, tears in her eyes. Breaking into a run, she rushed over to where her brother, now sitting up, and the little white digimon were on the ground. Sakuyamon moved over to them, dropping down next to them and looking them over carefully.

"They…seem okay," the shaman digimon said uncertainly. "How do you feel, Mako?"

"Like I do when Ai and I used to fight," the boy grumbled. He looked over at Calumon and his lower lip trembled. Calumon was so still and quiet. His body was a mess of scratches. "Is he…?"

While all this was going on, 'Rika' watched with confusion. Something was wrong, but she couldn't tell what. Looking at Takato she found him, much to her surprise, already dashing toward the group.

_Takato…_ Takato the knight of Hypnos, always ready to lend aid, even when he was broken inside.

"Ugh…" One hand went to her head as she felt a twinge of pain lance through her skull. There was a spark of electricity around her vision and, for an instant, as she watched Takato, she saw him change. She saw… _A blue shirt? _The vision ended almost as soon as it came, and with it the pain. Shaking her head, she quickly followed him.

"I don't know." She heard Sakuyamon say as shook her head. "I'll…"

"Let me help."

Turning in the direction of the voice, Sakuyamon found the copy of her human half dropping down next to her, hands glowing blue as she reached out and placed them on both Impmon and Calumon. The blue light flowed from her hands and into their bodies, causing the their injuries to first recede and then vanish.

"Calu…?" With a moan, Calumon's eyes opened and he looked up at everyone gathered around him. Impmon looked at himself with an expression that denoted surprise and glee.

"Not bad, fire-head," Impmon grinned. "Not bad at all. I feel like a million yen!"

"Yen?" the girl asked as Sakuyamon stood up and placed Impmon down on the ground.

"Never mind, toots." Impmon looked up at Sakuyamon. "So, someone care to explain to me why we've got a double of a certain redhead running around?"

"We've all got questions," Sakuyamon said, standing up. The other Rika backed away warily, her shadow quivering.

_Powerful…_ she thought. _And tall. _She could sense the raw, still-as-yet untapped strength that lay beneath the surface of this…shaman. What _was_ she? Earlier she saw a girl that looked similar to her—excluding her bizarre hairstyle—merge with the demon fox from earlier. She never saw anything like that before, and that demon fox…

Sakuyamon raised a hand. "There is someone you should meet," she said. "Maybe from there we can start getting answers to our questions."

Rika glanced over at Takato and as soon as she did that pain was back. Electricity crackled over her body and once more something happened to her vision. Takato's face swam and…something appeared on top of his forehead. Something yellow was strapped to it that looked almost like eyes. His clothes however looked nothing like she had seen before. Nothing that she saw him wearing earlier.

Electricity sparked around her again and her sight of him changed again. White with a red cape, and the…_things_ on his head were gone.

"Takato…?" she whispered, realizing that everyone had backed up from her. "You…_are_ Takato, right?"

The boy looked back and forth between this version of Rika and Sakuyamon, wondering how best to answer.

"Um…last I checked…"

"Look," interrupted Sakuyamon. "It's complicated, and you _clearly_ have a problem. We need to get you out of here and…"

_"No!"_ the Rika clone interrupted fiercely, shooting the shaman digimon a glare. "Above all else this is something I have to know. I _need_ to know." She turned back to Takato, her eyes set determinedly. "Never mind. I know how to get my answer."

Striding up to the Tamer she took hold of him by the back of his neck.

"Hey!" Takato exclaimed, starting to resist. Rika's strength turned out to be much greater than his and she cut off all further protests by crushing her lips against his. Takato's eyes went wide with shock as Rika held him there, an expression shared by Impmon. The Tamer tried to push her off, but she pressed forward. Electricity leapt up and began dancing between them, causing Takato's eyes to roll up in their sockets as his body tensed up.

_"Get off of him!"_ Rika shouted from within her data sphere as she outwardly threw Sakuyamon at the pair. Snatching her duplicate up by the back of her kimono she broke them apart and caught Takato just as he started to fall. The boy coughed and gasped for breath as he shook all over from muscle spasms. Seething with rage she turned a baleful look at her double as she righted herself.

"If you've hurt him…" she began, only to stop when something about her double caught her eye. A single, solitary tear traced a path down her cheek. Looking at her eyes, she saw pain that ran deeper than anything physical. The girl, touching her mouth to her lips straightened and tightened her grip on her staff.

"That's not him," she said firmly before abruptly leaping into the air.

5


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 14

"_She's gone,"_ Sakuyamon said in Rika's voice, floating in midair above the playground, scanning her surroundings. Try as she might, she couldn't detect her duplicate even with the enhanced senses that Renamon's Mega form bestowed upon her. _"Either she's very good at hiding or she's gone back to wherever she came from."_

_"Whatever they are, they seem to have the ability to avoid detection,"_ she heard Renamon say from the darkness surrounding her data sphere. _"I feel that it's safe to say that your double is still in Shinjuku, but without a more thorough search we're going to have a hard time finding her or any others like her."_

_ "So…back to Hypnos I guess,"_ Rika said, agreeing with her partner. With that, Sakuyamon floated down to where the others were and immediately went over to where Takato sat and placed a gloved hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?" she asked, this time in the dual voices of the Tamer and digimon that composed her form. Takato turned toward her and she grimaced. The tremors from earlier were gone, but the boy looked pale and badly drained.

"Well…I don't think I need to go back to the hospital again," he replied with a strained, humorous smile. From within her data sphere, Rika laughed with a relieved tone, but she still fixed him with a glare.

_"This isn't the time to be joking about that sort of thing,"_ she scolded. _"Do you need help?"_

"Nah." Takato shook his head and, wobbling slightly, got back to his feet. Sakuyamon kept a firm hand on his shoulder in case he did fall, but seeing that he remained steady once he was fully standing, she let go and stood back. Relaxing her hold on her Mega form, Sakuyamon glowed and parted, reforming into Rika and Renamon. The girl's hand returned to Takato's shoulder though, and she gave it a soft, comforting squeeze before letting go upon seeing Calumon approaching them, ears spread wide to help him float.

"Are you guys going to go to Hypnos?" he asked. "Impmon wants me to go get the others."

Rika exchanged a glance with Takato, and the boy nodded.

"We might as well. We're probably going to get called there anyway."

"Okay!" Calumon saluted—or saluted as best he could given how short his arms were—before immediately darting away. "We'll see you there!"

"He's a weird one," Rika observed with amusement.

"Yeah, but he's not bad," Takato laughed lightly.

"So what the heck was that all about?" Impmon said, hands on his hips as he approached the pair with Ai, Mako behind him. "That copy have the hots for you or something?" Grinning devilishly, Impmon gave Takato an amused look. "I mean, aside from what happened at the end there, she sure seemed to take a real shine to you."

"She probably _has a shine_ for the copy of Takato that's sitting in Hypnos right now," Rika replied just as Takato was quickly shaking his head no in response, hoping no one would notice the blush on his face.

"Huh?" both Impmon and Takato asked in unison, looking over at the red-haired girl as she lifted her hair and began to tie it back up into its traditional ponytail. For some reason it always came undone whenever she and Renamon biomerged.

"There was an attack at Rika's school by an…unknown creature," answered Renamon. _"You,"_ Renamon pointed at Takato for emphasis, "arrived before further damage could be done."

"Handled it pretty well too, I might add," Rika added grudgingly.

"But I wasn't…" Takato halted, remembering what Rika said earlier. "Oh…"

"Since your brains were scrambled, I'll let that near Goggleheaded moment go." Rika gave him a small smile as she put the finishing touches on her ponytail and dropped her arms. "Are you sure you're okay to travel?"

"Relax already, toots," Impmon said, his arms behind his head. "You're starting to sound like a mother hen or somethin'. I dunno about you, but I'm pretty sure your _boyfriend_ can handle himself." Impmon flashed the pair a devilish grin for added emphasis, basking in the sudden redness that bloomed to life on both Rika's face and deepened on Takato's.

"Wha…Wha…?!"

_"Boyfriend?!_ What are you…?"

"What?" Impmon interrupted casually. "I got my brains scrambled too by that D-Reaper knockoff. Aren't you going to let my Impmon moment go too? I mean, I _was_ literally seein' double earlier. Kind of hard to tell you apart."

Rika folded her arms across her chest and glared at the diminutive digimon, obviously not believing his excuse for a minute. Scratching the back of his head, Takato coughed politely, opting to quickly change the subject.

"U-Um… Anyway, about scrambled brains… I…I think there was something more to what the other Rika did to me when she…ah…" Takato's face grew even redder as Rika, Renamon, and Impmon all turned toward him, but he pushed through, forcing the words out in one mad tumble. "I think I saw the world she's from!"

That got everyone's attention. Now on ground that Takato felt more comfortable with, he began to explain what he saw.

"I saw a city," he began, looking down at his hands thoughtfully for a moment, "and it looked like something out of a storybook…"

**###**

The walls to the city were massive, leaving Takato to marvel at them. But they were so much more than that. They had an ornate beauty to them with curving lines that stretched around the gates like vines and snaked off in all directions. They were completely unlike anything he was familiar with. Hypnos didn't build beautiful things, but then the organization lacked the luxury to craft them. Touching his sword was a faint reminder of that. Everything Hypnos made for the war against the Reaper was at its most basic: that is to say, functional. There were to be none of the trappings of ornamentation. The shield? An ancient device from another time and another empire, one that he stumbled upon during a retreat following a battle gone bad. And his red cloak…

He resisted the urge to tug at its edges as they approached the gate. He distracted himself by returning his attention back to the mission at hand and focused on the passersby. Many were chatting happily, focused on their day-to-day musings of nothings and somethings.

_They…don't look like a people who are under siege._ Takato furrowed his brow as he eyed them quizzically. It was most puzzling. In his homelands violence always followed in the wake of the Reaper wherever it went. One couldn't even trust its own dead to be peaceful. Or, for that matter, the dead of allies and loved ones.

Takato found himself clenching his sword hilt with a vice-like grip. Releasing it he shook his hand, relaxing the muscles.

_Can't hold it too tight,_ he thought, remembering the lessons of his sword instructor. He wondered how the beast of a man was doing. He hoped at least well.

Nearing the gate, one of the guards turned toward them and hefted his spear, looking them over carefully. His gaze brushed over Rika but stayed on Takato.

"Welcome back Milady," the guard greeted, returning his attention to the red-haired girl. Takato felt his eyebrows raise a little at that.

_Milady?_ He knew that she was a shaman, but the tone of respect in his voice indicated something far more.

"Motomiya," the girl greeted with a curt nod. "I have returned from my journey. I need to see…the Queen as soon as possible. I have news she needs to hear."

"Of course," the guard replied with a respectful bow of his head. "I'm sure your mother will be glad to hear that you have returned."

Takato's eyes widened almost to the size of saucers. _"Queen?!"_ he choked, his head snapping over in her direction. She gave him a hard look and he immediately shut his mouth. His mind however continued where he left off. _Her mother is the queen of this country?! That makes her… Oh gods… And I struck her hand!_

Takato found himself looking up at the heavens, waiting for a lightning bolt to be cast from the clouds and strike him dead for his affront. A Knight of Hypnos was to ever be careful about their actions as they were sworn to protect those around them, but those favored by the divine? The gods would not look kindly on what he did even if it was to protect her. They were certain to make him pay for his actions.

So caught up was he in his thoughts that he missed Rika trying to get his attention.

"Fool," she growled, finally having had enough. She grabbed him by the hem of his cloak and promptly started to drag him forward, much to his squawking surprise. "Come along."

"Uh…" began Motomiya uncertainly. "This…person is with you?"

"Of course he is!" Rika snapped, brushing past him. "You saw him arrive with me, didn't you? Now let us through, and don't bother his horse!"

Motomiya looked to his right to see a shiny, red-scaled animal that looked something like a horse with unnerving golden eyes. Guilmon glanced back and forth between the guard and the pair as they passed the gate and then ducked his head down, snorting. To Motomiya it almost appeared that the horse was both shrugging and chortling at the scene. Motomiya gave the stranger a subtle salute with his spear.

_I don't know where she found you, but may the gods have pity on your soul,_ he couldn't help but think with some measure of sympathy.

Once the Princess of the Kingdom of Makino caught something, it was very rare that she ever let it go.

**###**

Gold and silver scrawled the image of a castle on the blank sheet of paper. In front of it were a mess of black stick figures, two of which had a touch of red—one for hair and the other for the flowing cape behind it. The red crayon fell on the pad as Suzie swayed in bed, her vision swimming a little. She looked over at Lopmon, who was currently curled up on the edge of the bed, resting, having nodded off along with Suzie some time ago. The girl woke up just recently with an overpowering urge to go back and draw the story that continued to weigh heavily on her mind. Weigh so much it was almost as though it incorporated the fever that even now racked her body, leaving her dizzy. She knew she should be resting but the urge became overpowering, so much so that it became like a _need,_ much like breathing. She had to get it out of her head before it burned her up.

Taking hold of the glass of water by her nightstand she took a long, deep drink. Once satisfied she withdrew the glass with a satisfied gasp.

"That hit the spot!" she chirped cheerfully. Yes, she could already feel the fever dying back now; only a little but that made all the difference. Replacing the glass on her nightstand, her bladder made itself known about a need of its own, one that demanded complete and total attention that, under no certain circumstances would not be ignored. Not if one didn't want trouble.

"I've got to go to the bathroom," she mumbled to herself. Pushing back the blankets, she touched her feet down on the floor and, after making sure she wouldn't fall or anything, she headed toward the bedroom door and pulled it open. Disappearing down the hallway, she failed to notice the beeping of her pink-trimmed digivice from its spot near her pillow. The screen glowed brightly for a moment before returning to darkness.

4


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A Story for Suzie

Chapter: 15

Her head hurt again.

Her bronze staff clattering to the ground, the shaman clutched at the sides of her skull, clenching her teeth. After what felt like an eternity, the pain began to subside and she breathed shakily, calming herself and clearing her mind. Crossing her arms over her chest, a blue light surrounded her and the residual pain began to wash away.

_One of the problems with the healing talent,_ she thought, remembering her lessons, _is that using it on yourself depends on your ability to concentrate. If you can't…_ She dropped her arms and the light vanished. _I don't get it. I can only relieve the pain but I can't figure out what's wrong with me._

Picking her staff back up, she thought back to earlier to when that boy…the one who looked so very much like Takato…changed in appearance.

_What was that about? And what about that girl? She looked just like me. What have I stumbled into?_

She cast her gaze out over the city and her eye twitched, as though she saw something different, but as yet she couldn't quite place what it was.

_Am I under some kind of spell? Is that what's going on? Am I…somehow being prevented from seeing the world around me as it truly is?_

She heard a spark, and she clutched at her face as a light burst in front of her vision. She held her hand over one eye for a moment, while the other widened. The city in front of her…tall, gleaming buildings of alien design; metal and glass as far as the eye could see, and flying chariots! The smell…

…and then it was all gone. It all vanished seemingly without a trace.

No. It didn't vanish. She looked around her, noting her environment and referencing it against her memory. A flat rooftop made from an unknown rock. A tall building across from her seemingly built from glass. The sound of strange, honking noises below.

Dropping her hand her expression hardened. She now knew what was going on. A glam was on her eyes that merely allowed her to accept what she saw without thinking about it. It wasn't a good glam either, as it still allowed some things through the perception filter.

_Before I do anything else, I should get rid of it,_ she thought. _Even if I don't know what kind of world I'm in, it's a problem if I can't be sure if I'm in danger. And I'd rather be in control of my own mind and judge for myself. _Reaching into her pouch, she withdrew a piece of chalk. It was a common tool that, at first glance was nothing special. Used by teachers at schools and first-year students in the magical arts. Yet within it was the potential for far greater things; the basis of all magic, even the most powerful, traced its roots to it.

Kneeling, she set the chalk against the rooftop and began to draw a circle.

As she drew, the thought of her beloved knight drifted through her mind, and she bit her lower lip.

_Takato… I'll find you, wherever you are._

**###**

After stabling Guilmon, Takato followed Rika through the halls of the castle, doing his best to not be amazed while they headed toward the throne room to seek an audience with the Queen.

Takato swallowed anxiously. _The Queen…_ He resisted the urge to look down at his clothing. Tattered, dirty, and otherwise stained with the rigors of hard travel and combat, Takato was hardly fit for a royal audience with the ruler of a country. Nonetheless, Rika insisted that they meet with her immediately, appearance be damned.

Approaching the throne room, Takato took note of a woman with brown hair and a regal smile on her face standing in front of the doors. Her eyes were of a striking violet, much like Rika's, only in place of her blazing spirit, they were tempered by the wisdom that comes with age and experience.

_Is that the Queen?_ he wondered as they drew near. The woman's eyes slid over him, before focusing on Rika.

"Welcome home dear," she greeted in a warm, loving tone. "I take it that your 'mission' went well?"

Takato furrowed his brow slightly, having caught the emphasis on the word _mission._

"It was…interesting," Rika replied, hefting her staff. "Is mother in there?"

_So that's not the Queen?_ Takato felt a bit surprised by this. She carried herself with enough majesty. _Maybe I was wrong. The eye color is right but the hair…_

"She's holding court right now, yes," the woman replied. "Now might not be a good time to go in there. Since you've left there have been some incidents."

"There are _always_ some _incidents,"_ Rika said with bitter force. A thoughtful expression passed over her face though and she resumed in a more formal tone. "What kind?"

"One that involves an attempt on your mother's life."

"Assassination?" Takato asked, piping up. "Did the attacker…? Did they have any unusual abilities?"

The woman turned toward Takato, appraising him. After a moment, her eyes widened slightly.

"He's a Knight of Hypnos," said Rika. "I met him in the field. He has information about the recent attacks on our city. Their war might be related to this."

The woman continued to look Takato over, this time with a more scrutinizing eye than before, leaving Takato with the itch to squirm, feeling as though she were peeling him apart. To his credit though he kept still and didn't flinch.

"Yes, he certainly _looks_ like he's from the north," she said finally, returning her attention to Rika. Takato found himself letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "I imagine he'll be an excellent bodyguard for you."

Rika stiffened. "I don't _need_ his help."

"An ally then," the woman smiled. "It might be a good idea to retain his services. I have heard that Knights of Hypnos are quite honorable. With the current political climate I would feel better if you had him by your side."

"Are things that bad?" Rika asked, tilting her head to one side.

"They could be worse. I'd rather that you do so for my peace of mind." She looked over at Takato and smiled apologetically. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's terrible of me to be saying this without asking you first…"

"No, it's all right," Takato replied with a goofy smile that made Rika's lip curl in slight disgust. "This is what I do. And since there's a chance that whatever is going on here is related to Rika's mission and…what I experienced up north, I'll do my duty." He glanced at Rika apprehensively. "That is, if she'll have me."

Rika was silent for one long moment before she turned toward the doors.

"If it will make you feel better," she replied gruffly, though whether she spoke to the woman or to him, Takato couldn't be sure.

"Now that that is settled," the woman said, taking Takato's hand into her own. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Seiko of the House of Hata, the previous queen of the Kingdom of Makino."

"The _previous…!"_ Takato gaped. "But…But… You're so you…" Takato clamped his mouth shut on the word _young,_ earning him a sharp glare from Rika. Seiko, for her part, gave a light laugh.

"Such a kind young man you found," she smiled. Her eyes softened a little. "It's a pity."

"Huh? What is?"

"Nothing. I shall have the servants have Rika's room made ready for you, since you are to protect her. Is that all right dear?" she asked Rika.

"As long as he doesn't get any funny ideas," she replied, still not sold on the _bodyguard_ idea.

"Oh, trust me," Takato laughed, rubbing the back of his head with a nervous twitter to his words. "I wouldn't dream of it."

That caused Rika's eyes to narrow to razor-thin slits and the boy instantly regretted his choice of words.

"Aaand…insert foot…" he coughed, blushing lightly. Seiko raised an eyebrow.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Just a saying from up north. It's nothing."

"Well, I wish you the best of luck." She squeezed down on Takato's hand and the youth felt a small tingle cross his palm. "I hope to see you again."

Releasing her grip on his hand and turned to depart. Glancing at his hand where he felt the odd tingle, he saw writing on his palm, written clearly in the language of the north.

_Stay near her,_ the message said before vanishing.

"Everything all right?" Rika asked, jolting him out of his reverie.

"Huh? Oh, yeah! I was just thinking… Um…your grandmother seems nice." Takato gave Rika a quirky, lopsided grin. Rika _harrumphed_ and turned back toward the door.

"She's the only person here who has an ounce of sense in them," she replied. Placing her hands on the doors before Takato could say anything else, she pushed them open and strode into the court. Takato quickly fell into step behind her. As he strode in her shadow he took a quick gander around him, noting the nobility as all eyes turned toward them. One of them in particular, a youth around his age with brown hair and blue eyes that radiated confidence. His gaze followed Takato as he walked by, leaving him with the odd feeling that he had seen him somewhere before, but for the life of him he could not remember where or when. Shrugging it off, he continued on.

_There's…not as many noblemen or women as I thought there would be,_ he thought, taking in each and every one of them as he passed them by._ About a dozen so far. _He changed his attention over to the armed and armored soldiers with swords girded to their waists. _A lot of guardsmen and commanders though. I wonder if this is because of the assassination…_

Takato shrugged mentally before turning his attention toward the front of the room. He felt his breath catch in his throat at the coppery-haired beauty that sat upon the throne, gripping a golden scepter, commanding the courtroom with her presence. She had quite the presence and her eyes, violet like Seiko's and Rika's, were deep and hard. She looked almost displeased to see her daughter.

_I wonder if I should kneel,_ he wondered as they drew to a halt.

"Rika Nonaka," the Queen nodded in greeting. "I heard you had returned. However, I have not summoned you to stand before the throne."

"This couldn't wait, mother," Rika said, stepping to the side to reveal Takato. "I have brought someone who has information about the last attack on our city."

"Rika," the Queen interrupted. "We unfortunately have more pressing matters than the simple, wild monsters that you went chasing after."

Takato went rigid at that and felt his blood pulse in his head. He remembered Rika's advice to be careful of what he said in these halls, but he found that he could _not_ let what the Queen said pass without comment.

"Uh…beg your pardon your majesty," he began before Rika could protest further, raising a hand. He found himself struggling a little to keep his voice even. "This is much, _much_ more than just simple, wild monsters."

"Impertinence…" he heard someone mutter off to the side. Takato tightened his grip on his sword. "What is he, a brush knight?"

"I did not give you leave to speak," the Queen said, narrowing her eyes down at him. "I do not know who you are or what my daughter has told you, but I would ask you to not…"

"Wasn't your city attacked by a monster with green armor and a horn? I…"

"Silence!"

The Queen banged her scepter on her throne and true to her command, quiet reigned, but only for a moment as the blue-eyed youth stepped forth from the side.

"My Queen," he began and at once Takato felt the casual confidence in his tone, almost as though he wore it as readily as he did his own cloak. "Forgive me, but I think it might be a good idea to hear him out. He's a Hypnos Knight from the north."

The Queen pressed her lips together into one thin line before sighing. "Everyone out," she said. "Everyone except my daughter and her companion…and _you_ Ryo. I don't think this impromptu meeting should occur without your insight."

_Ryo…? Ryo… Where… That names familiar. Where have I heard it before?_

"My lady…" began one of the guardsmen, but the Queen waved him off. "I said _everyone_ except those I have named. Now, _out!"_

With that, the guards, commanders, and nobility began to file out of the throne room, many of whom cast looks in Takato's direction. He did his best to ignore them. He had more important things to be concerned about at the moment.

Finally, as the doors slammed shut, leaving them alone, the Queen rose from her throne and descended toward the three below.

"My daughter," she began. "I do hope that you have an explanation for your behavior."

"I thought it was pretty straight forward," Rika replied coolly as Ryo drew up between her and Takato, nodding to the knight. Takato nodded back cautiously.

"A mere letter! You left in the middle of the night and went into danger!"

"Because I _knew_ you would forbid me from heading out to solve the situation!" Like I'm _supposed_ to!

_"You_ are the heir to the throne! You have no right to decide for yourself when you have the kingdom—its future and the greater good—to think about!"

"I _don't_…" Halting herself, Rika visibly restrained herself from continuing with whatever she was about to say, and with an effort, turned the subject to what her original purpose. "The knight I brought with me…"

"Yes, the so-called _Hypnos Knight."_ The Queen turned toward Takato with a baleful expression. "The one who felt that it was within his right to speak out of turn and interrupt my council."

"I…" began Takato, feeling a little bit angry now, but the motion of Ryo's hand as it drifted to his sword hilt drew him up short. Looking at the other youth, Takato saw that he was being gauged. The youth shook his head, as if to tell him to backpedal with his temper.

"Queen Rumiko," Ryo began, taking up the thread of conversation. "I can vouch for the Order of Hypnos. One of their number would not be here or even interrupt a court that was in session if there wasn't good reason for it. You'll have to forgive this one, but they raise their warriors to have a strong sense for the safety and wellbeing of those under their protection."

_"We_ are under their protection?" Rumiko said with an accusatory note in her voice. _"We_ are not subject to your people, _knight!"_

"It's…not like that," Takato said carefully.

"It's not," confirmed Ryo, standing closer to him, his hand drifting away from his sword. "I've served with them before." Takato looked at the youth in shock, but Ryo continued speaking to the Queen, taking no notice. "They considered it a sacred duty to safeguard and help others, even if they aren't related to them politically. Even those who break away from them and become _errant _continue to do so. They desire to prevent the loss of life wherever possible."

"Mother," began Rika. "He has sworn an oath to aid me. Through me he protects your kingdom. He _knows_ the creature that attacked our city. What's more, he knows how dangerous it is. He fears that there is a hidden danger that is taking root in our city because of it coming here." She tilted her head to one side. "Grandmother has mentioned an attempt was made on your life while I was away…"

Rumiko turned away and ascended a step on the throne before looking back.

"Ryo… You vouch for this young man?"

"I vouch for the Order of Hypnos," Ryo replied. "Much as I would like to, I can't say the same for this one wearing their colors. Even so, we should hear him out."

Rumiko turned toward Takato and gave him a long appraisal before resuming her ascent back to her throne and seating herself in it.

"Very well… Tell your tale, and we shall decide what merit it has."

Ryo gave Takato a hidden grin and stepped aside with a grand sweep of his arm, as if to say, _the floor is yours._ Swallowing, his mind awhirl with questions, he approached the throne and began his story.

"It all started with a red seed…"

5


End file.
